Neurológia pre prax 1/2024

Patient with myopathy… or not?

The clinical picture of the disease is a essential factor for determining the correct diagnosis and thus the treatment procedure. It is not uncommon that etiopathogenetically different processes can lead to outwardly visible symptoms. The similarity of the phenotype of hereditary myopathies and adult forms of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is known – mainly SMA III. type, Kugelberg-Welander, sometimes directly referred to as pseudomyopathic. In the light of the new possibilities of therapeutically influencing the SMA gene mutation, we remind you of the urgency of revising the diagnoses of adult patients who give the impression of myopaths. Diametrically different are not only the genes affected by the mutation and the level of the motor pathway lesion, but above all the current treatment options.

Keywords: spinal muscular atrophy, myopathy, loss of muscle mass, neurogenic, myogenic