myotonic dystrophy
Noun: A specific, inherited type of muscular dystrophy characterized by progressive muscle weakness and wasting, and an inability to relax muscles normally after contraction (myotonia). It is a multi-system disorder that can also affect the heart, eyes, endocrine system, and central nervous system.
The term "myotonic dystrophy" is used exclusively as a medical noun to name the disease. It is typically used in clinical, genetic, and patient-education contexts. * The diagnosis was confirmed as myotonic dystrophy type 1. * Research into myotonic dystrophy focuses on understanding its genetic mechanisms. * Patients with myotonic dystrophy often experience excessive daytime sleepiness.
- "Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1)" and "Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2)": These are the two recognized primary forms of the disorder, caused by different genetic mutations but sharing overlapping clinical features. DM1 is generally more severe.
- While both cause muscle weakness, myotonic dystrophy type 2 often has a milder presentation than type 1.
- DM: A common medical abbreviation for "myotonic dystrophy," often specified as DM1 or DM2.
- Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy: A fuller, synonymous term.
- Steinert's disease: An older eponym sometimes used for myotonic dystrophy type 1.
- Myotonia: The key symptom of delayed muscle relaxation, which is a hallmark of this dystrophy but can also occur in other, rarer conditions.
- Muscular Dystrophy: The broader category of genetic diseases characterized by progressive muscle weakness and degeneration, under which myotonic dystrophy is classified.
- Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy
- Dystrophia Myotonica (the formal Latin-derived term)
"Myotonic dystrophy" has only one specific meaning as the name of this defined medical condition. It is not used idiomatically or in non-medical contexts. The word "dystrophy" on its own (from Greek dys- "bad" + trophē "nourishment") refers to a disorder arising from defective or faulty nutrition of tissues.
- a severe form of muscular dystrophy marked by generalized weakness and muscular wasting that affects the face and feet and hands and neck; difficult speech and difficulty with the hands that spreads to the arms and shoulders and legs and hips; the onset can be any time from birth to middle age and the progression is slow; inheritance is autosomal dominant