The Muscular Dystrophies and Related Disorders

THE MUSCULAR dystrophies may have a history dating back many centuries. Pöch and Becker¹suggested that one of the ancient Egyptian sculptures (around 1500 BC) represented persons possibly affected with muscular dystrophy. However, medical descriptions of the disease appeared in the 19th century, which included probably the first recognizable clinical description by Charles Bell²in 1830, the pathological observations by Partridge³in 1847, and the meticulous definition of clinical and autopsy findings by Meryon⁴in 1852. After several distinguished descriptions of the disorders by Duchenne,⁵Gowers,⁶Landouzy and Déjèrine,⁷and others, Wilhelm Erb⁸published his classical article, which clearly established the disease as an entity. He coined "dystrophia muscularis progressiva" for this disease. The term was subsequently modified slightly to "dystrophia musculorum progressiva." A great deal of knowledge concerning muscular dystrophies has been accumulated for a century. Progress of research on the muscular