Heart Drug Effective for Treating Symptom of Muscular Dystrophy
Posted May 04 2010 5:41pm
A medication most often used to treat heart arrhythmias also reduces a central symptom of myotonic dystrophy, the most common type of muscular dystrophy in adults.
The findings about the medication mexiletine – a chemical cousin of lidocaine – were published May 4 in the journal Neurology, a publication of the American Academy of Neurology.
Currently there is no drug approved to treat myotonic dystrophy, an inherited disease that is marked by progressive muscle weakness. While the course of the disease can vary dramatically from patient to patient, symptoms besides weakness can include muscle stiffness, difficulty speaking and swallowing, problems walking, and in some patients, heart problems and cataracts. Physicians estimate that approximately 40,000 Americans have the condition.
The researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that mexiletine is effective at treating the myotonia – muscle stiffness – that is at the center of the disease. Turning a key in a lock, writing with a pen or pencil, picking up and setting down a pitcher of water – all are formidable tasks for patients with myotonia. Sometimes the symptom first occurs when a patient shakes someone’s hand, then cannot relax his or her grip for several seconds.
A medication most often used to treat heart arrhythmias also reduces a central symptom of myotonic dystrophy, the most common type of muscular dystrophy in adults.
The findings about the medication mexiletine – a chemical cousin of lidocaine – were published May 4 in the journal Neurology, a publication of the American Academy of Neurology.
Currently there is no drug approved to treat myotonic dystrophy, an inherited disease that is marked by progressive muscle weakness. While the course of the disease can vary dramatically from patient to patient, symptoms besides weakness can include muscle stiffness, difficulty speaking and swallowing, problems walking, and in some patients, heart problems and cataracts. Physicians estimate that approximately 40,000 Americans have the condition.
The researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that mexiletine is effective at treating the myotonia – muscle stiffness – that is at the center of the disease. Turning a key in a lock, writing with a pen or pencil, picking up and setting down a pitcher of water – all are formidable tasks for patients with myotonia. Sometimes the symptom first occurs when a patient shakes someone’s hand, then cannot relax his or her grip for several seconds.