Essay On Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

There are more than thirty inherited muscular dystrophy that causes the muscles to wither, and weaken. Even though there are over thirty different types, Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most severe form of muscular dystrophy. Around three years of age is when symptoms begin to show, and with continuous muscle impairment the children that have Duchenne muscular dystrophy are normally wheelchair bound in their early teens. Following that; when the child reaches their mid to late twenties they suffer from cardiac/respiratory failure leading to death. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a form of muscular dystrophy that only affects boys. Cardiomyopathy is present in around twenty-five percent of patients at age 6, and increasing as age goes up to fifty-nine percent at age 10. At eighteen years of age over ninety percent of patients have Cardiomyopathy. There is no known cure available at this time; but there are treatments that include steroid administration, and assisted ventilation. The absent dystrophin in Duchenne muscular dystrophy is due to a frame shift in the gene. Characterized by different mutations, the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene is one of the largest in the human genome. They ran tests on a six-year-old boy who was already diagnosed with Duchenne muscular

Not only does it weaken your muscles, but it makes it very difficult to do day-to-day functions. I could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to have this disorder, or to have a child with this disorder. Also, being that it is the most severe form of muscular dystrophy, it would be extremely hard to live with, if not unbearable. To me being wheelchair bound by the early teens would be just horrible, because of all or the sports/activities that child will have to miss out on. The child also lives an extremely short life with cardiac/respiratory failure setting in around the mid to late