Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Corticosteroids often cause muscle weakness to some degree in patients. Symptoms are usually weakness of the proximal muscles, neck flexor, and in extreme cases, respiratory muscle weakness can also occur. [1] Corticosteroids have not only been found to cause some degree of muscle atrophy, but also a local or diffuse cell death.
Muscle atrophy is the loss of skeletal muscle mass. It can be caused by immobility, aging, malnutrition, medications, or a wide range of injuries or diseases that impact the musculoskeletal or nervous system. Muscle atrophy leads to muscle weakness and causes disability.
Prognosis depends on the individual form of muscular dystrophy. Some dystrophies cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle function, which may result in severe physical disability and a life-threatening deterioration of respiratory muscles or heart. Other dystrophies do not affect life expectancy and only cause relatively mild impairment. [2]
Further causes of neuromuscular diseases are: Polymyositis. Inflammatory muscle disorders. Polymyalgia rheumatica (or "muscle rheumatism") is an inflammatory condition that mainly occurs in the elderly; it is associated with giant-cell arteritis (It often responds to prednisolone). [18] Polymyositis is an autoimmune condition in which the ...
Damage to skeletal muscle may take various forms. Crush and other physical injuries cause damage to muscle cells directly or interfere with blood supply, while non-physical causes interfere with muscle cell metabolism. When damaged, muscle tissue rapidly fills with fluid from the bloodstream, including sodium ions.
This meaning implies that the primary defect is within the muscle, as opposed to the nerves ("neuropathies" or "neurogenic" disorders) or elsewhere (e.g., the brain). This muscular defect typically results in myalgia (muscle pain), muscle weakness (reduced muscle force), or premature muscle fatigue (initially normal, but declining muscle force).
Muscle weakness is a lack of muscle strength. Its causes are many and can be divided into conditions that have either true or perceived muscle weakness. True muscle weakness is a primary symptom of a variety of skeletal muscle diseases, including muscular dystrophy and inflammatory myopathy.
Neurological causes include radiculopathy, poliomyelitis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, spinal muscular atrophy. [2] In pseudohypertrophy where the atrophied muscle tissue has been infiltrated by fat tissue, upon palpitation the seemingly large muscles feel doughy. [3] Not all muscles infiltrated by fat or other tissue are pseudohypertrophic.