There are not that many people in the world who do not know what neuromuscular diseases are. People should know that there is not only one disease that affects the functioning of the muscles but there are a lot of these diseases and ailments. It is also important to know that there are ailments that can affect the muscles directly but there are also ailments which can affect the muscles indirectly. For instance, the most common ailments which affect the muscles directly are those via intrinsic muscle pathology. On the other hand, if the functioning of the muscles is affected via nerve pathology, than it is considered that the muscles are affected indirectly. People should know that these neuromuscular diseases will not only affect the muscles but they will also affect the nervous control of the muscles as well. These diseases should not be taken lightly as a person may end up suffering from spasticity or even some degree of paralysis. The severity of the problem and the location of it will determine how much trouble a person will experience due to these diseases. The nature of the problem plays an important role as well. In most cases of these diseases a person will experience problems with walking and movement in general. There are a lot of examples of these disorders but probably the best known are Amatrophic Lateral Sclerosis, cerebrovascular accident, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, myasthenia gravis, Huntington’s disease and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Symptoms and testing of neuromuscular diseases
There are a lot of possible signs which point to neuromuscular diseases but there are some which are a lot more common than others. For instance, the most common signs include muscular weakness, spasticity, loss of muscular control, muscle pain and twitching and spasming. In order for the doctors to diagnose a person with any of the possible muscular disorders, he or she will perform direct clinical observations before any other way of diagnosing. Apart from that, some of the other ways of diagnosing which are commonly used are the testing of various chemical and antigen levels in the blood and the procedure of measuring of electrical activity in the muscles which is otherwise known as electromyography. In addition to this, some cases may benefit from diagnostic imaging. Diagnostic imaging is especially helpful in situations when some of the conditions are caused by either strokes or tumors.
Causes, including autoimmune diseases and poisoning
People need to know that there are a lot of causes which can lead to neuromuscular diseases. The most commonly seen causes are certain circulatory problems like stroke for instance, various immunological and autoimmune disorders and the failure of the electrical insulation which surrounds nerves called myelin. Apart from these causes, there are some other causes which are not that uncommon like certain genetic or hereditary disease like Huntington’s for instance, specific rare tumors, exposure to pernicious environmental chemicals and poisoning. Heavy-metal poisoning is included as well. A person may also end up suffering from certain neuromuscular diseases if the connection between the nerves and muscular fibers appears not to be functioning properly or simply fails. In addition to all these causes, people need to be aware that there are also some causes which remain unknown even to this day. Certain deficiency diseases, like the inability of the body to properly absorb vitamin B-12 for instance, are known to affect the failure of the electrical insulation surrounding the nerves. The failure of myelin is seen in other diseases such as multiple sclerosis and certain neurological diseases.
Inflammatory muscle disorders
People need to know that there are several inflammatory muscle disorders which can occur as well. For instance, a certain condition called polymyalgia rheumatic or simply the rheumatism of the muscles is an inflammatory condition which affects mainly older people. A lot of people do not know that this condition is in connection with giant-cell arteritis. Some of the other possible inflammatory muscle disorders include polymyosistis, dermatomyositis and inclusion boy myositis. People need to know that these three are autoimmune conditions in which the muscle is affected. It is also important to know that the breakdown of muscular tissue can occur because of various causes. This breakdown is otherwise known as rhabdomyolysis. An interesting thing is that this condition may not cause any symptoms at all. However, people should know that it can lead to acute renal failure. Relevant statistical data
According to the data, New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Neuromuscular Service is considered to be in the top five such services in the United States and in the first place when New York City is considered. When treatment is considered, people need to know that the doctors will offer comprehensive treatments according to the symptoms, causes and patient’s needs. The underlying health problem is present in many cases and it needs to be identified first.
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