Muscle disease | Description, Causes, Types, & Treatment | Britannica (original) (raw)
muscle disease, any of the diseases and disorders that affect the human muscle system. Diseases and disorders that result from direct abnormalities of the muscles are called primary muscle diseases; those that can be traced as symptoms or manifestations of disorders of the nervous system or other systems are not properly classified as primary muscle diseases. Because muscles and nerves (neurons) supplying muscle operate as a functional unit, disease of both systems results in muscular atrophy (wasting) and paralysis.
Indications of muscle disease
Muscular atrophy and weakness are among the most common indications of muscle disease (see below Muscle weakness). Though the degree of weakness is not necessarily proportional to the amount of wasting, it usually is so if there is specific involvement of nerve or muscle. Persistent weakness exacerbated by exercise is the primary characteristic of myasthenia gravis.
Pain may be present in muscle disease because of defects in blood circulation, injury, or inflammation of the muscle. Pain is rare, except as a result of abnormal posture or fatigue in muscular dystrophy—a hereditary disease characterized by progressive wasting of the muscles. Cramps may occur with disease of the motor or sensory neurons, with certain biochemical disorders (e.g., hypocalcemia, a condition in which the blood level of calcium is abnormally low), when the muscle tissues are affected by some form of poisoning, with disease of the blood vessels, and with exercise, particularly when cold.
Muscle enlargement (muscular hypertrophy) occurs naturally in athletes. Hypertrophy not associated with exercise occurs in an unusual form of muscular dystrophy known as myotonia congenita, which combines increased muscle size with strength and stiffness. Pseudohypertrophy, muscular enlargement through deposition of fat rather than muscle fibre, occurs in other forms of muscular dystrophy, particularly the Duchenne type.
Tetany is the occurrence of intermittent spasms, or involuntary contractions, of muscles, particularly in the arms and legs and in the larynx, or voice box; it results from low levels of calcium in the blood and from alkalosis, an increased alkalinity of the blood and tissues. Tetanus, also called lockjaw, is a state of continued muscle spasm, particularly of the jaw muscles, caused by toxins produced by the bacillus Clostridium tetani.
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The twitching of muscle fibres controlled by a single motor nerve cell, called fasciculation, may occur in a healthy person, but it usually indicates that the muscular atrophy is due to disease of motor nerve cells in the spinal cord. Fasciculation is seen most clearly in muscles close to the surface of the skin.
enzyme defects affecting glycogen breakdown in muscleVarious enzyme defects can prevent the release of energy by the normal breakdown of glycogen in muscles. Enzymes in which defects may occur include glucose-6-phosphatase (I); lysosomal x-1,4-glucosidase (II); debranching enzyme (III); branching enzyme (IV); muscle phosphorylase (V); liver phosphorylase (VI, VIII, IX, X); and muscle phosphofructokinase (VII). Enzyme defects that can give rise to other carbohydrate diseases include galactokinase (A1); galactose 1-phosphate UDP transferase (A2); fructokinase (B); aldolase (C); fructose 1,6-diphosphatase deficiency (D); pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (E); and pyruvate carboxylase (F).
Glycogen is a storage form of carbohydrate, and its breakdown is a source of energy. Muscle weakness is found in a rare group of hereditary diseases, the glycogen-storage diseases, in which various enzyme defects prevent the release of energy by the normal breakdown of glycogen in muscles. As a result, abnormal amounts of glycogen are stored in the muscles and other organs. The best-known glycogen-storage disease affecting muscles is McArdle disease, in which the muscles are unable to degrade glycogen to lactic acid on exertion because of the absence of the enzyme phosphorylase. Abnormal accumulations of glycogen are distributed within muscle cells. Symptoms of the condition include pain, stiffness, and weakness in the muscles on exertion. McArdle disease usually begins in childhood. No specific treatment is available, and persons affected are usually required to restrict exertion to tolerable limits. The condition does not appear to become steadily worse, but serious complications may occur when the muscle protein myoglobin is excreted in the urine. Other glycogen-storage diseases result from deficiency of the enzymes phosphofructokinase or acid maltase. With acid maltase deficiency, both heart and voluntary muscles are affected, and death usually occurs within a year of birth.
Muscle weakness
Signs and symptoms
Weakness is a failure of the muscle to develop an expected force. Weakness may affect all muscles or only a few, and the pattern of muscle weakness is an indication of the type of muscle disease. Often associated with muscle weakness is the wasting of affected muscle groups. A muscle may not be fully activated in weakness because of a less than maximal voluntary effort; a disease of the brain, spinal cord, or peripheral nerves that interferes with proper electrical stimulation of the muscle fibres; or a defect in the muscle itself. Only when all causes have been considered can weakness be attributed to failure of the contractile machinery (i.e., the anatomy) of the muscle cell.
The effect of weakness in a particular muscle group depends on the normal functional role of the muscle and the degree to which force fails to develop. A weakness in muscles that are near the ends of the limbs usually results in a tendency to drop things if the upper limb is affected or in “foot drop” if the lower limbs are affected. The overall disability is not as great as weakness of more proximal (closer to the body) muscles controlling the pelvic or shoulder girdles, which hold large components of the total body mass against the force of gravity. Weakness of the proximal muscles that control the shoulder blade (scapula), for example, results in “winging” (i.e., when the sharp inner border protrudes backward) as the arms are held outstretched. If the weakness is severe, the arms cannot be raised at all.
Assessment
Muscle disease may be detected by assessing whether the muscle groups can withhold or overcome the efforts of the physician to pull or push or by observing the individual carrying out isolated voluntary movements against gravity or more complex and integrated activities, such as walking. The weakness of individual muscles or groups of muscles can be quantified by using a myometer, which measures force based on a hydraulic or electronic principle. Recordings of contraction force over a period of time are valuable in determining whether the weakness is improving or worsening.
The assessment of muscle weakness (and wasting) is directed toward discovering evidence of muscle inflammation or damage. These changes are discerned by blood tests or by measuring alterations of the electrical properties of contracting muscles. Another investigative tool is the muscle biopsy, which provides muscle specimens for pathological diagnosis and biochemical analysis. Muscle biopsies can be taken with a needle or during a surgical procedure.