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Neuromuscular disease is a very broad term that encompasses many diseases and ailments that either directly, via intrinsic muscle pathology, or indirectly, via nerve pathology, impair the functioning of the muscles.
Neuromuscular diseases are those that affect the muscles and/or their nervous control. In general, problems with nervous control can cause either spasticity or some degree of paralysis, depending on the location and the nature of the problem. A large proportion of neurological disorders leads to problems with movement. Some examples of these disorders include cerebrovascular accident (stroke), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Huntington's disease (Huntington's chorea), and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Symptoms of muscle disease may include muscular weakness, spasticity/rigidity, loss of muscular control, myoclonus (twitching, spasming), and myalgia (muscle pain). Diagnostic procedures that may reveal muscular disorders include direct clinical observations (above all), the testing of various chemical and antigen levels in the blood, and electromyography (measuring electrical activity in muscles). Diagnostic imaging may be helpful in certain cases, such as those caused by strokes or tumors.
Neuromuscular disease can be caused by circulatory problems (strokes, etc.), immunological and autoimmune disorders, the failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves myelin, genetic/hereditary disorders, such as Huntington's disease, certain rare tumors, the failure of the connections between the nerves and the muscle fibers, exposure to pernicious environmental chemicals, poisoning - including heavy-metal poisoning, and importantly, unknown causes. The failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves, the myelin, is seen in certain deficiency diseases, such as the failure of the body's system for absorbing vitamin B-12, and also the failure of the myelin is seen in multiple sclerosis and some other neurological diseases, especially in autoimmune diseases that are thought to attack the myelin.
Some neuromuscular diseases are hypothesized to be caused either by viral infections or by attack by little-known pernicious proteins called prions.
Diseases of the motor end plate include myasthenia gravis, a form of muscle weakness due to antibodies to the acetylcholine receptor, and its related condition Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS). Tetanus and botulism are bacterial infections in which bacterial toxins cause increased or decreased muscle tone, respectively.
The myopathies are all diseases affecting the muscle itself, rather than its nervous control.
Muscular dystrophy is a large group of diseases, many of them hereditary or resulting from genetic errors, where the muscle integrity is disrupted. They lead to progressive loss of strength, high dependence and decreased life span.
• Polymyalgia rheumatica (or "muscle rheumatism") is an inflammatory condition that mainly occurs in the elderly; it is associated with giant-cell arteritis. It often responds dramatically to glucocorticoids (e.g. prednisolone).
• Polymyositis, dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis are autoimmune conditions in which the muscle is affected.
• Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscular tissue due to any cause. While it may not lead to any muscular symptoms at all, the myoglobin thus released may cause acute renal failure.
Related Information:
Diabetes Spinal Muscular Atrophy Batten disease Ataxia Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Dementia Multiple system atrophy Parkinson's disease Neuromuscular disease Stroke Multiple sclerosis Brain Injuries Multiple sclerosis Spinal cord disorders Huntington's disease Schizophrenia disease Major depressive disorder Spasm and convulsions Thyrotoxic Myopathy Polymyositis disease HMSN disease Toxic encephalopathy Autism disease Mental retardation Pachygyria disease SAH Idiopathic intracranial hypertension Muscular dystrophy Mitochondrial myopathies Mitochondrial diseases
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