Neuromuscular disease
| Neuromuscular disease | |
| MeSH | D009468 |
|---|---|
Overview
Neuromuscular disease is a very broad term that encompasses many diseases and ailments that either directly (via intrinsic muscle pathology) or indirectly (animal muscle in general.
Neuromuscular diseases are those that affect the muscles and/or their nervous control. In general, problems with nervous control can cause spasticity or paralysis, depending on the location and nature of the problem. A large proportion of neurological disorders leads to problems with movement, ranging from cerebrovascular accident (stroke) and Parkinson's disease to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Symptoms
Symptoms of muscle disease may include
Laboratory Findings
Diagnostic procedures that may reveal muscular disorders include testing creatine kinase levels in the blood and electromyography (measuring electrical activity in muscles).
Causes
- 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
- Botulism
- The myopathies are all diseases affecting the muscle itself, rather than its nervous control.
- Muscular dystrophy leads to progressive loss of strength, high dependence and decreased life span.
- [Inflammatory]] muscle disorders
- Polymyalgia rheumatica (or "muscle rheumatism") is an inflammatory condition that mainly occurs in the elderly
- Polymyositis
- Dermatomyositis
- Inclusion body myositis
- Other causes
- Tumors of muscle
- Smooth muscle: leiomyoma (benign, very common in the uterus), leiomyosarcoma (malignant, very rare)
- Striated muscle: rhabdomyoma (benign) and rhabdomyosarcoma (malignant) - both very rare
- Metastasis from elsewhere (e.g. lung cancer)
- Tumors of muscle