Posted by susan from IP 12.203.6.194 on April 29, 2006 at 19:24:00:
In Reply to: dif between Duchene and Becker muscular dystrophy?? posted by Nadia on April 29, 2006 at 18:52:45:
duchenne has a Deleted dystrophin gene, becker has a mutated dystrophin gene.
They are essentialy the same, but Becker is less severe.
They are mainly accelerated muscle breakdown--->weakness begining in the pelvis then progresses upwards.
there is hypertophy of the calf muscles due to replacement ofmuscles by fibrofatty tissues.
there is cardiomyopathy, and they have a positive gower's sign---> meaning they have proximal muscle weaknessso they use their arms to " climb up " onto themselves to stand up( i.e. they need upper limb assistanceto stand up )
To Diagnose a patient, you have to see the previous symptoms and signs, then you can do his labs... mainly measure CPK which is a product of muscle breakdown, so it will increase in the disease. you can also do a muscle biopsy.