Dismantling Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy

Abstract

Muscular dystrophy encompasses a diverse group of genetically determined muscle disorders. The first clinical description of the disorder is attributed to Giovanni Semmola, who, in 1829, described 2 boys affected by a disorder with prominent muscular hypertrophy.1 Between 1850 and 1868, Aran, Meryon, and Duchenne described a progressive atrophy of voluntary muscles, ultimately termed pseudohypertrophic muscular paralysis of children by Duchenne.1,2 Other descriptions followed: familial atrophy of the pelvic girdle muscles (Leyden in 1876), scapulohumeral muscular atrophy (Erb in 1884), and myopathy with facial weakness (Landouzy and Dejerine in 1884).1 The term limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), suggested by Stevenson in 1953,3 and further detailed by Walton and Nattrass in a seminal article,2 refers to a group of muscular dystrophies with onset of weakness in the shoulder or pelvic girdles.4 The variable clinical course of this disorder was recognized even in these early descriptions.2,3