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Becker Muscular Dystrophy

What are the symptoms?

Features of BMD include:

  • Progressive muscle weakness leading to difficulties in physical abilities such as walking or running and, later, weakness affecting the upper arms and shoulders.
  • Pseudohypertrophy (enlargement without additional strength) of muscles in the calves and elsewhere.
  • Cardiomyopathy. Heart disease caused by weakening of the heart muscles.
  • In the later stages, respiratory muscle weakness may lead to chest infections.

There may also be learning and/or behaviour problems in some children, including difficulty in focusing attention, verbal learning and memory. Emotional difficulties may sometimes develop, perhaps as a result of the frustration or stigmatisation of living with a disability.

View Background Background  |  What are the causes? View What are the causes?

Medical text written August 2004 by Contact a Family. Approved August 2004 by Professor A Clark, Professor in Medical Genetics and Hon. Consultant in Medical Genetics, Institute of Medical Genetics, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK.

 

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