Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. In muscular dystrophy, abnormal genes (mutations) interfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle. There are many kinds of muscular dystrophy.
Myasthenia gravis. Myopathy. Myositis, including polymyositis and dermatomyositis.
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 CK test is most often used to diagnose and monitor muscular injuries and diseases. These diseases include: Muscular dystrophy, a rare inherited disease that causes weakness, breakdown, and loss of function of skeletal muscles.
Cachexia is a condition that causes extreme weight loss and muscle wasting. It is a symptom of many chronic conditions such as cancer, chronic renal failure, HIV, and multiple sclerosis. Cachexia predominantly affects people in the late stages of serious diseases like cancer, HIV or AIDS, and congestive heart failure.
Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited diseases that causes weakness and wasting away of muscle tissue. They can also cause the breakdown of nerve tissue. There are multiple types of muscular dystrophy. Each type leads to loss of strength, increasing disability, and possible deformity.
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).
Cachexia is most common in people with advanced pancreatic and lung cancer, but it also frequently occurs in people with other types of cancer, including head and neck, colorectal, ovarian, and liver cancers.
Losing muscle mass is a normal condition when getting older, however abnormal muscle loss can be caused by malnutrition, an eating disorder, or an autoimmune disease like HIV/AIDs. Muscle deterioration can also be a sign of a serious chronic disease or mental health issue.
Blood tests.
A blood test will let your doctor know if you have elevated levels of muscle enzymes, which can indicate muscle damage. A blood test can also detect specific autoantibodies associated with different symptoms of polymyositis, which can help in determining the best medication and treatment.
CT scan – where a series of X-rays are taken to create a detailed image of the inside of your body, which will reveal any muscle damage.
The main muscles to be affected are around the shoulders, hips and thighs. Having myositis can also lead to other parts of the body being affected, such as the skin, lungs or heart. Sometimes myositis can affect the muscles that carry out tasks such as breathing and swallowing.
Polymyositis most commonly affects adults in their 30s, 40s or 50s. Women are affected more often than men. Signs and symptoms usually develop gradually, over weeks or months.
Presence of cachexia is identified from a weight loss of 10% or more within 6 months. The rate and amount of weight loss are directly related to survival in cancer patients [5]. Fearon et al., have described three stages of the cachectic syndrome, precachexia, cachexia, and refractory cachexia (Figure 1A) [1].
Refractory cachexia is defined as a cancer disease both procatabolic and not responsive to anticancer treatment, with low performance status (World Health Organization score 3–4) and life expectancy of <3. months.
Cachexia happens when there is an imbalance in how your body metabolizes, or absorbs and uses, the food you eat. It causes severe weight loss, loss of appetite, weakness, and fatigue. It can also affect how your body handles cancer treatments you may be receiving.