Clinical, electrophysiological and pathological evaluation of limb girdle weakness

Abstract

Introduction: Limb girdle weakness is one of the frequent clinical diagnoses in neurological clinics. Their etiology, treatment and prognosis are varied in different geographical regions of the world. Materials and methods: Patient cohort of 68 patients with limb girdle weakness from a tertiary hospital in South India were studied. Results: Most of the patients were found to have muscular dystrophies with LGMD variety being the highest reported. Out of 48 cases of muscle disorders LGMD [17/48] and DMD [14/48] formed the majority. Very few of them had a family history and they had little evidence of cardiac involvement. Males were more affected in DMD and BMD. LGMD males outnumbered female patients in this study. Conclusion: Our study reports that muscular dystrophies claim a major share of limb girdle weakness. It is very important to understand the precise etiology and to identify patients prone to life threatening cardiac, pharyngeal or respiratory muscle involvement.