Neuromuscular Disorders

What is a neuromuscular disorder?

Neuromuscular disorders is a general term that encompasses a large number of diseases with different presentations, The terms 'muscle disease', ‘muscular dystrophy', ‘neuromuscular conditions' and ‘neuromuscular disorders' all describe 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.

There are lots of different types of muscle disease. Different conditions affect different muscles. The severity of conditions and how they affect individuals varies greatly from person to person. Most conditions are progressive, causing the muscles to gradually weaken over time. People's mobility is affected and most conditions lead to some sort of disability.

Muscle disease affects babies, children and adults, both males and females, and all ethnic groups. Conditions can be inherited or occur out of the blue where there is no family history.

The Walton Report

Symptoms

Some neuromuscualar diseases have symptoms that begin in infancy and others where the symptoms may appear in childhood or adulthood. Symptoms may present in different parts of the body depending on the type of the neuromuscular disorder and the affected biological structure.

It is worth noting that the neuromuscular disorders can be inherited or caused by a spontaneous gene mutation. There is also a possibility that a immune system reaction could lead to a neuromuscular disease.

Diagnosis

Some neuromuscular conditions are very rare and health professionals may not known much about them. Therefore,

Conditions

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Muscular dystrophies (MD) (Duchenne MD, Becker MD, Limb Girdle MD)
• Spinal Muscular Atrophy
• Guillain-Barre Syndrome
• Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
• Multifocal Motor Neuropathy
• Myasthenia Gravis
• Inflammatory Myopathies
• Pompe’s Disease

Resources

The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign

Muscular Dystrophy UK