BACKGROUND In 1991, the first world survey of neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) was published in the peer reviewed literature. Since then, diagnostics have been greatly improved through genetic confirmation and consensus on criteria. This prompted us to search the scientific literature since 1990 for the epidemiology of NMDs. OBJECTIVES To study occurrence rates, gender and age distribution. M...

We report a rare case of paternally transmitted congenital myotonic dystrophy (DM). The proband is a 23 year old, mentally retarded male who suffers severe muscular weakness. He presented with respiratory and feeding difficulties at birth. His two sibs suffer from childhood onset DM. Their late father had the adult type of DM, with onset around 30 years. Only six other cases of paternal transmi...

A clinical and molecular analysis of 439 individuals affected with myotonic dystrophy, from 101 kindreds, has shown that the size of the unstable CTG repeat detected in nearly all cases of myotonic dystrophy is related both to age at onset of the disorder and to the severity of the phenotype. The largest repeat sizes (1.5-6.0 kb) are seen in patients with congenital myotonic dystrophy, while th...

The occlusal traits and the craniofacial morphology were studied in patients with an altered muscle function caused by myotonic dystrophy. Twenty-four adult patients were examined and compared with a matched group of healthy individuals. The condition of the masticatory muscles was evaluated by measuring the maximal bite force. The dental arches and the occlusal traits were analysed on dental c...

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a distal myopathy and a multisystem disease occurring with an incidence of 1/8000, as a result of a CTG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the serinetreonine-protein kinase (DMPK) coding gene on chromosome 19q13.3. In DM1 patients the length of the CTG expansion ranges from 50 to 4000. Disease severity correlates with repeat length and the phenomenon of genetic...

Myotonic dystrophy is the most common neuromuscular disease in adults with a prevalence of 2.4-5.5 per 100,000. Here we describe two cases of DM and discuss their obstetric complications. Our first case concerns a 39 year old multipara whose pregnancies were complicated by recurrent abdominal pain, polyhydramnios and post partum haemorrhage which was attributed to DM. In our second case we disc...