muscle groups, and the specific diagnosis is based largely on the pattern of clinical muscle weakness ( Table 27-4 ). Several autosomal muscular dystrophies, however, affect the
proximal musculature of the trunk and limbs, similar to the X-linked muscular dystrophies, and are termed limb girdle muscular dystrophies.
Limb girdle muscular dystrophies are inherited in either an autosomal-dominant (type 1) or an autosomal-recessive (type 2) pattern ( Table 27-5 ). Six subtypes of the dominant
dystrophies (1A to 1F) and ten subtypes of the recessive limb girdle dystrophies (2A to 2J) have been identified. Mutations of the sarcoglycan complex of proteins have been identified
in four of the limb girdle muscular dystrophies[52] (2C, 2D, 2E, and 2F). These membrane proteins interact with dystrophin through another transmembrane protein, b-dystroglycan ( Fig.
27-10 ).
Myotonic Dystrophy
Myotonia, the sustained involuntary contraction of a group of muscles, is the cardinal neuromuscular symptom in this disease.[53] Patients often complain of "stiffness" and have
difficulty in releasing their grip, for instance, after a handshake. Myotonia can often be elicited by percussion of the thenar eminence.
Pathogenesis.
Inherited as an autosomal-dominant trait, the disease tends to increase in severity and appear at a younger age in succeeding generations, a phenomenon termed anticipation. Myotonic
dystrophy is associated with a trinucleotide CTG repeat expansion on chromosome 19q13.2-13.3. This expansion affects the mRNA for the dystrophila myotonia-protein kinase (DMPK).
[54] In normal subjects, fewer than 30 repeats are present; disease develops with expansion of this repeat, and in severely affected individuals, several thousand repeats may be present.
[54] The mutation is not stable within a pedigree; with each generation, more repeats accumulate, and this appears to correspond to the clinical