muscle atrophy

This is a clinically heterogeneous disorder with extensive neurological deficits.  Patients have feeding and swallowing difficulties from the neonatal period.  There is intrauterine growth retardation and postnatally patients usually exhibit psychomotor delays and intellectual disabilities.  Some develop seizures and few achieve normal developmental milestones.  Axial hypotonia is present from early infancy and most patients have muscle weakness and atrophy.  However, there may be spastic quadriplegia which is often associated with dysmetria, tremor, and athetosis.  Ataxia eventually develops in most patients. 

Brain imaging shows cerebral and cerebellar atrophy, enlarged ventricles, white matter defects, and delayed myelination. 

Incomplete metabolic studies suggest there may be abnormalities in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation activity in at least some tissues.  Most patients have an elevated serum lactate.

Death in childhood is common.

This is a severe congenital neurodevelopmental disorder with global delay, hypotonia, and characteristic facies.  It is usually present at birth and soon manifest as a profound intellectual delay.  Most patients do not develop speech or independent motor skills.  Feeding difficulties are evident early and often require gastric tube placement for nutrition.  Failure to thrive is common.   Most patients have seizures of a tonic-clonic or atonic type which may be controlled with medication. 

Microcephaly, brachycephaly, plagiocephaly, and brachycephaly have been described.  A high forehead with frontal bossing, facial hypotonia, triangular facies have been described.  The ears are low-set and posteriorly rotated.  The upper lip is often thin and the mouth is commonly open.  The neck appears short, the nose is bulbous while the nasal bridge is prominent and the nares may be anteverted.

Brain imaging is normal in some patients but there is evidence of generalized cerebral atrophy, with a thin corpus callosum and decreased myelination in others.  Variable features such as scoliosis, hip contractures, muscle wasting, and dyskinesias are sometimes seen.

This form of spinocerebellar ataxia is considered to be the most frequent.  It is a progressive disease in all aspects which accounts for some of the considerable clinical heterogeneity reported.  Onset is likewise highly variable depending upon the number of repeats but usually sometime between the second to fifth decades.  In a large cohort of Azorean individuals the mean age of onset was reported to be 37 years.

An unsteady gait, dysarthric speech, general clumsiness, and diplopia are among the early symptoms.  Nystagmus, spasticity, and various autonomic signs including reduced bladder control may also be noted.  Chronic pain, sleep disturbances, impaired mental functioning, and memory deficits are often present and some authors have labelled these as indicative of dementia.

Virtually all clinical signs progress with ambulation difficulties requiring the need for assistive devices about a decade after the onset of disease.  Eventually signs of brain stem involvement appear with facial atrophy, perioral twitching, tongue fasciculations and atrophy, and dysphagia. Some degree of peripheral polyneuropathy with muscle wasting and loss of sensation are often present.  Tremors and other signs of Parkinsonism may be present.  Dystonic movements are often seen.

Imagining of the brain has revealed pontocerebellar atrophy and enlargement of the 4th ventricle but this is variable.  Nerve conduction studies documents involvement of the sensory nerves.  Neuropathologic studies show widespread neuronal loss in the CNS and spinal cord.

This progressive disorder can be evident at birth based on the facial dysmorphism.  The face is triangular, the forehead is prominent, the nose is small, the ears appear large and low-set.  The mouth appears wide with a thin upper lip.  Early development may be near normal for the first 6 months but thereafter psychomotor regression and slow physical growth are evident.  Patients have microcephaly and seldom achieve normal milestones.  Spasticity in the extremities and truncal hypotonia with distal muscle atrophy are evident.  The face appears triangular, the forehead is prominent, the nose is small, and the ears appear large and low-set.  Pectus carinatum and pes varus may be present.   Males often have cryptorchidism.

Brain imaging has revealed cerebellar atrophy and "while matter abnormalities".  Sural nerve biopsies show evidence of infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy.

Some individuals are less severely affected, retain the ability to speak, and are able to walk at least into the second decade of life.

Patients have the onset of severe, unrelenting neuroregression by 6 months of age.  They never achieve normal milestones and eventually regress to a vegetative state.  No dysmorphic features are present.  Muscle spasticity has been reported.  Brain imaging shows multiple nonspecific signal anomalies throughout.  Biopsy of skeletal muscle shows atrophic and angulated fibers.

Mitochondrial DNA copy numbers are decreased as is the activity of respiratory complex I. 

Symptoms consisting of a spastic gait and distal sensory impairment usually appear in the first decade and are slowly progressive.  Increased deep tendon reflexes and extensor plantar responses may be present at that time but later distal leg muscle atrophy and pes cavus appear.  The ankle reflexes later disappear.  Cognitive function is normal and adults are able to lead an independent life.

Nerve conduction studies in 4 individuals showed reduced muscle action potentials and velocity while sensory conduction was normal.  Cerebellar atrophy along with an attenuated corpus callosum and cervical spinal cord atrophy was noted on MRI imaging in one of 3 studied patients.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a large group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorders characterized by progressive motor and sensory polyneuropathy.  These can be separated (with overlap) into two large groups on the basis of electrophysiologic criteria: type 1 is the demyelinating form, and type 2 the axonal form.  Patients with primarily distal motor neuropathy are sometimes considered to comprise a third type.

 Symptoms such as weakness in the extremities and digits have a variable age of onset but usually become evident in late childhood or early adulthood.  Small muscles of the hands and feet are often atrophied to some degree.  Some patients develop hearing loss of the neurosensory type.  Foot deformities such as pes cavus are common.  Nerve conduction velocity (reduction) and electromyography can be helpful diagnostically.  It may be helpful to look for characteristic changes such as loss of myelinated fibers and focal myelin sheath folding in sural nerve biopsies.  Intellectual impairment and dementia are usually not features of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Hemizygous individuals with X-linked types of CMT such as CMTX2-5 seem to be more likely to have intellectual disabilities, hearing loss, spasticity, and optic neuropathy.