Muscle disease: THE BARE ESSENTIALS

Abstract

Muscle diseases impair mobility and frequently have cardiorespiratory complications. Their age of onset is extremely wide; patients may die young, or there may be lifelong motor disability with cardiorespiratory complications, or late onset muscle weakness. About 50 000 people in the UK population of 60.5 million have one of the diverse group of genetic and acquired conditions which make up the primary muscle diseases; many more have muscle symptoms due to drugs or systemic diseases such as cancer. The important acquired muscle diseases include the inflammatory myopathies which are treatable and so the diagnosis must not be missed (or overdiagnosed and some other disorder treated inappropriately), as well as the drug-induced myopathies. Neurologists are also often asked to assess patients with secondary muscle dysfunction due to aging, immobility, critical illness and cancer. Distinguishing myopathies from peripheral neuropathies, anterior horn cell diseases (eg, motor neuron disease) and neuromuscular junction disorders (eg, myasthenic syndromes) requires careful clinical evaluation supplemented by investigations, which may include peripheral neurophysiology, imaging, muscle biopsy and genetic testing. ### Clues from the history #### Age of onset #### Childhood features #### Family history #### Rate of progression and temporal pattern of weakness