Muscular Dystrophy

Abstract

Changes demonstrable by x-rays occur in long bones, spine, and soft tissues of patients with muscular dystrophy.* Most authors have regarded these findings as part of disease; they have not correlated them with severity of disease. Lewitan and Nathanson15pointed out that, the bone changes are purely secondary to muscle involvement. The hospitalization of a group of children with muscular dystrophy has provided opportunity for a study correlating radiographic changes with severity of disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS Roentgenograms of vertebral column, skull, long bones, wrists, and thorax were made of 31 children whose history, physical findings, laboratory studies, and muscle biopsy were compatible with diagnosis of juvenile form of muscular dystrophy. Films of spine were examined for signs of scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis, and caninization (i. e., apparent increase in altitude of vertebral bodies) and films