Muscular degenerative disease is a malfunction in the body that often weakens the skeletal muscles and prevents function in the body. The disease was discovered in 1861 by a French neurologist named Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne, but the discovery of the cause was founded in 1886 ("Diseases - DMD”). One particular muscular dystrophy that affects children is called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in which a small percentage of boys are born with. DMD is a muscular disease that causes muscles to weaken, inability to function properly, and cardiorespiratory problems. Though the effects of the muscular disease is devastating and is at a high risk for anyone of the inherited family disease and those of not, with the acceptable treatment before
…show more content…
Duchenne Muscular Disease is a muscular defect that is common in children, specifically boys. The history behind DMD was not one that had much background to the cause of it. For example, people with cancer genetically have the cancerous cells in their blood because their medical history dates back to having relatives that had cancer. However, in muscular dystrophy diseases, that is not the case. “Duchenne muscular dystrophy is inherited in an X- linked recessive fashion; however, it may also occur in people from families without a known family history of the condition” (“Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”). During offspring, parents pass on two sets of chromosomes each. A mother always passes on an X- chromosome, letting the father pass on a Y- chromosome, deciding the gender of the child. The flawed gene passed on by the mother does not have to date back to ancestral connections, either because the family might have not known about the disease and never had a son that inherited it, or the child had a new genetic mutation in the mother’s eggs ("Diseases - DMD”). Therefore, the reason why young men are often diagnosed with this disease is according to their …show more content…
Dilated cardiomyopathy, is “a form of heart disease that weakens the cardiac muscle, preventing the heart from pumping blood efficiently” (“Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophy”). Patients who have Duchenne disease will develop cardiomyopathy and have a lesser life expectancy due to heart failure. Also, with the vast amounts of blood loss and the weakened muscle tissue replaced by fat, it is also a main factor of death for young patients of DMD. According to Barp, “...had led to a greater proportion of DMD patients succumbing to DCM- related cardiac failure, in parallel to reduced mortality due to respiratory insufficiency” (Barp). The dystrophin protein is the most abundant protein for the muscles to function. Without it, the whole body or the muscle that lacks the protein is unable to function properly. The different stages of DMD are usually detectable during a young age, and increasingly gets worse as the child grows older. “Around 25% of patients have cardiomyopathy at 6 years of age and, more than 90% of young men over 18 years of age demonstrate evidence of cardiac dysfunction” (Meregalli). Children start to show DMD symptoms at the age of three, showing a loss of muscle strength, enlarged calves, or lack of development. As time passes on, heart defects start to develop as they get older, causing their life expectancy to be around the middle to late
Duchenne Muscular Disease is a muscular defect that is common in children, specifically boys. The history behind DMD was not one that had much background to the cause of it. For example, people with cancer genetically have the cancerous cells in their blood because their medical history dates back to having relatives that had cancer. However, in muscular dystrophy diseases, that is not the case. “Duchenne muscular dystrophy is inherited in an X- linked recessive fashion; however, it may also occur in people from families without a known family history of the condition” (“Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”). During offspring, parents pass on two sets of chromosomes each. A mother always passes on an X- chromosome, letting the father pass on a Y- chromosome, deciding the gender of the child. The flawed gene passed on by the mother does not have to date back to ancestral connections, either because the family might have not known about the disease and never had a son that inherited it, or the child had a new genetic mutation in the mother’s eggs ("Diseases - DMD”). Therefore, the reason why young men are often diagnosed with this disease is according to their …show more content…
Dilated cardiomyopathy, is “a form of heart disease that weakens the cardiac muscle, preventing the heart from pumping blood efficiently” (“Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophy”). Patients who have Duchenne disease will develop cardiomyopathy and have a lesser life expectancy due to heart failure. Also, with the vast amounts of blood loss and the weakened muscle tissue replaced by fat, it is also a main factor of death for young patients of DMD. According to Barp, “...had led to a greater proportion of DMD patients succumbing to DCM- related cardiac failure, in parallel to reduced mortality due to respiratory insufficiency” (Barp). The dystrophin protein is the most abundant protein for the muscles to function. Without it, the whole body or the muscle that lacks the protein is unable to function properly. The different stages of DMD are usually detectable during a young age, and increasingly gets worse as the child grows older. “Around 25% of patients have cardiomyopathy at 6 years of age and, more than 90% of young men over 18 years of age demonstrate evidence of cardiac dysfunction” (Meregalli). Children start to show DMD symptoms at the age of three, showing a loss of muscle strength, enlarged calves, or lack of development. As time passes on, heart defects start to develop as they get older, causing their life expectancy to be around the middle to late