Muscular dystrophy. Myasthenia gravis. Myopathy. Myositis, including polymyositis and dermatomyositis.
Primary muscle diseases that can also be secondary to another health condition include: Rhabdomyolysis. Myopathy. Myositis.
Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.
Myositis (my-o-SY-tis) is a rare type of autoimmune disease that inflames and weakens muscle fibers. Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's own immune system attacks itself. In the case of myositis, the immune system attacks healthy muscle tissue, which results in inflammation, swelling, pain, and eventual weakness.
General Muscular Dystrophy Symptoms
Difficulty walking. Frequent falling. Difficulty getting up from a lying or sitting position. Limited movement at certain joints (called contracture)
The most common muscular dystrophy is Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The next most common is Becker muscular dystrophy. Symptoms are almost the same as Duchenne, but less severe.
Scientists have found that a major reason people lose muscle is because they stop doing everyday activities that use muscle power, not just because they grow older. Muscular atrophy is the decrease in size and wasting of muscle tissue. Muscles that lose their nerve supply can atrophy and simply waste away.
A doctor may order a blood test for an enzyme called creatine kinase (CK), which leaks out of muscles that are deteriorating. This is a nonspecific test because CK levels are elevated in many neuromuscular diseases, but it's often a useful test.
This article provides an overview of candidate drugs to treat muscle wasting disease that are available or in development. Drugs highlighted here include ghrelin agonists, selective androgen receptor molecules, megestrol acetate, activin receptor antagonists, espindolol, and fast skeletal muscle troponin inhibitors.
Viruses or bacteria may invade muscle tissue directly, or release substances that damage muscle fibers. Common cold and flu viruses, as well as HIV, are just a few of the viruses that can cause myositis.
Autoimmune disorders that specifically affect the muscles, joints, and nerves include rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Polymyalgia rheumatica, which also involves the joints, is thought to be an autoimmune condition, according to the Arthritis Foundation.
In multiple sclerosis (MS), two types of atrophy are common: muscle atrophy (due to disuse of specific muscles) and brain or cerebral atrophy (due to demyelination and destruction of nerve cells). When a person complains of muscle weakness, the doctor checks muscles for bulk and texture and for tenderness.
Symptoms of muscle disease may include muscular weakness, rigidity, loss of muscular control, numbness, tingling, twitching, spasms, muscle pain and certain types of limb pain.
These disorders are a large group of conditions which affect either the muscles, such as those in the arms and legs or heart and lungs, or the nerves which control the muscles. Disorders of muscle may cause weakness or paralysis in the presence of an intact nervous system.
The diseases most frequently mistaken for muscular dystrophy were polymyositis and the syndrome of "benign hypotonia." Polymyositis, with its protean manifestations and variable course, may mimic all of the forms of muscular dystrophy so closely that differentiation becomes especially difficult. 1. 2. 3.
The diagnosis of myositis involves a complete physical exam, blood test, electromyography (a neurological test that assess the electrical activity in your muscles), and a muscle biopsy, which involves removing a small sample of muscle tissue for testing.
Autoimmune Encephalitis
We diagnose encephalitis and related conditions using a variety of methods: Blood tests to see if you have a bacterial or viral infection. Brain imaging scans, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or electroencephalogram (EEG)
This inflammation usually results in muscle fatigue and weakness, frequent falling, swelling of the feet and legs, and muscular and joint pain. Early symptoms in patients with myositis include: Difficulty standing up from a seated position. Difficulty climbing stairs.
Muscle wasting involves muscle loss or atrophy and usually happens gradually. It can occur because of a variety of conditions, including ALS, muscular dystrophy, and MS. As muscle wasting can affect a person's strength and their ability to perform everyday activities, it can greatly reduce their quality of life.
Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of developing an age-associated loss of muscle strength called dynapenia, which is a major risk factor for physical incapacity later in life.