Author: Charles Essex and Helen Roper
Source: British Medical Journal, July 7, 2001, Volume 323, pages 37-8
In this Lesson of the Week feature, the authors report on 3 cases where a delay in the diagnosis of Duchenne's muscular dystrophy occurred because the child being examined also had other developmental delays.
The classic picture of Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy is a boy who walks late, uses his hands to push off on his kness as he rises from the floor, and has abnormally large calf muscles, but these signs may not be noticed as readily when the child also has considerable learning difficulties and global developmental delay.
In all the cases presented here, opportunities were missed to make an earlier diagnosis, and in one case, a younger brother was also born with muscular dystrophy before the older one was given the diagnosis.
The authors recommend that clinicians consider Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy as a possible diagnosis in young boys with global developmental delay.
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