- Email: [email protected]
Myopathies
Myopathies
Preface Myopathies
Mazen M. Dimachkie, MD Richard J. Barohn, MD Editors
Busy clinicians can often be challenged by patients with skeletal muscle disorders. In this issue of Neurologic Clinics, we provide an approach and information that we believe will help clinicians take care of patients with myopathies. We begin with a practical pattern recognition approach that we have developed and which allows the clinician to narrow down the diagnostic possibilities by placing the symptoms and signs in one of the ten patterns. We then have a series of articles that discuss a variety of acquired and inherited muscle disorders. We provide updates on the latest genetic developments for the hereditary myopathies. Drug therapies are discussed as well, and this applies primarily to acquired muscle diseases; however, interventional treatments for many muscular dystrophies are currently in research trials, and we believe some of these novel therapeutic approaches will be in the clinics very soon. The contributors are in the neuromuscular services at major academic centers (such as the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Texas-Southwestern, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center–Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital–Center for Gene Therapy). The authors are all colleagues who have worked together for many years. As in our recent issue on neuropathies, our goal has been to push the envelope toward phenotype identification to perform selective diagnostic tests that lead us to optimal management of patients with neuromuscular disorders. We hope this issue complements the neuropathy issue and assists physicians in their approach and management of these diseases. In the current issue, we did not discuss the various neuromuscular junction disorders, which we hope to address in a future Neurologic Clinics issue. We would like
Neurol Clin 32 (2014) xiii–xiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ncl.2014.06.001 neurologic.theclinics.com 0733-8619/14/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
xiv
Preface
to express our appreciation to all of the authors who have worked so hard to make this issue a success. Mazen M. Dimachkie, MD Neurophysiology Division Neuromuscular Section Department of Neurology University of Kansas Medical Center 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Mail Stop 2012 Kansas City, KS 66160, USA Richard J. Barohn, MD Department of Neurology University of Kansas Medical Center 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Mail Stop 2012 Kansas City, KS 66160, USA E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.M. Dimachkie) [email protected] (R.J. Barohn)
Preface Myopathies
Mazen M. Dimachkie, MD Richard J. Barohn, MD Editors
Busy clinicians can often be challenged by patients with skeletal muscle disorders. In this issue of Neurologic Clinics, we provide an approach and information that we believe will help clinicians take care of patients with myopathies. We begin with a practical pattern recognition approach that we have developed and which allows the clinician to narrow down the diagnostic possibilities by placing the symptoms and signs in one of the ten patterns. We then have a series of articles that discuss a variety of acquired and inherited muscle disorders. We provide updates on the latest genetic developments for the hereditary myopathies. Drug therapies are discussed as well, and this applies primarily to acquired muscle diseases; however, interventional treatments for many muscular dystrophies are currently in research trials, and we believe some of these novel therapeutic approaches will be in the clinics very soon. The contributors are in the neuromuscular services at major academic centers (such as the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Texas-Southwestern, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center–Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital–Center for Gene Therapy). The authors are all colleagues who have worked together for many years. As in our recent issue on neuropathies, our goal has been to push the envelope toward phenotype identification to perform selective diagnostic tests that lead us to optimal management of patients with neuromuscular disorders. We hope this issue complements the neuropathy issue and assists physicians in their approach and management of these diseases. In the current issue, we did not discuss the various neuromuscular junction disorders, which we hope to address in a future Neurologic Clinics issue. We would like
Neurol Clin 32 (2014) xiii–xiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ncl.2014.06.001 neurologic.theclinics.com 0733-8619/14/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
xiv
Preface
to express our appreciation to all of the authors who have worked so hard to make this issue a success. Mazen M. Dimachkie, MD Neurophysiology Division Neuromuscular Section Department of Neurology University of Kansas Medical Center 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Mail Stop 2012 Kansas City, KS 66160, USA Richard J. Barohn, MD Department of Neurology University of Kansas Medical Center 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Mail Stop 2012 Kansas City, KS 66160, USA E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.M. Dimachkie) [email protected] (R.J. Barohn)