Dystrophy patients need counselling

Hyderabad: Genetic counselling is important for families who have a family history of muscular dystrophy, insisted neurologists in the city who were brainstorming on the new and effective drugs available for different types of muscle disorders.

Professor A.K. Meena, Department of Neurology at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences explained, “We want families who have a history of muscle disorders to opt for genetic counselling as it is found to help. It is easy to identify with new technologies. Many neuromuscular diseases are genetic in nature and are found to run in families. It is due to mutation in the genes which can occur during childhood or later stages of life. It is also caused due to the immune system of the body attacking the healthy cells. The treatment aims to improve mobility and lengthen life.”

Neuromuscular disorders are found to affect the arms and legs first where the movement is affected. It begins with severe pains and aches, and later progresses into wasting of the muscles. Identifying the disease with the right diagnosis is important. It has been found that even physicians are not aware of the symptoms and they have to be trained so that they will ensure that the patient meets a neurologist who will be able to identify the disease. Dr M.K. Singh, senior neurologist explained, “We find patients and families coming in too late to the tertiary care centre. Hence we are working on educating the medical fraternity too on these disorders.”

There are 30 types of muscular disorders and of these, Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy is very common. According to conservative estimates, the incidence of the disease in India is 29 per 1,00,000 population and of this, hardly 10 or 15 per 1,00,000 are identified.