Neuromuscular disease is a very broad term that encompasses many diseases and ailments that either directly, via intrinsic muscle pathology, or indirectly, via nerve pathology, impair the functioning of the muscles. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. ... This article is about the medical term. ... For other uses of Muscle, see Muscle (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Nerve (disambiguation). ...

Neuromuscular diseases are those that affect the muscles and/or their nervous control. In general, problems with nervous control can cause either spasticity or some degree of paralysis, depending on the location and the nature of the problem. A large proportion of neurological disorders leads to problems with movement. Some examples of these disorders include cerebrovascular accident (stroke), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Huntington's disease (Huntington's chorea), and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Spasticity is a disorder of the bodys motor system,and especially the Central Nervous Systems (CNS), in which certain muscles are continuously contracted. ... Paralysed redirects here. ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ... A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke- approximately 90% of strokes), by hemorrhage (a hemorrhagic stroke - less than 10% of strokes) or other causes. ... Myasthenia gravis (sometimes abbreviated MG; from the Greek myastheneia, lit. ... Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a very rare and incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is ultimately fatal. ...

Symptoms & Testing

Symptoms of muscle disease may include muscular weakness, spasticity/rigidity, loss of muscular control, myoclonus (twitching, spasming), and myalgia (muscle pain). Diagnostic procedures that may reveal muscular disorders include direct clinical observations (above all), the testing of various chemical and antigen levels in the blood, and electromyography (measuring electrical activity in muscles). Diagnostic imaging may be helpful in certain cases, such as those caused by strokes or tumors. Weakness can mean: The opposite of strength Weakness (medical) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Spasticity is a disorder of the bodys motor system,and especially the Central Nervous Systems (CNS), in which certain muscles are continuously contracted. ... Myoclonus is brief, involuntary twitching of a muscle or a group of muscles. ... Myalgia means muscle pain and is a symptom of many diseases and disorders. ... Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording physiologic properties of muscles at rest and while contracting. ... Imaging refers to the science of obtaining pictures or more complicated spatial representations, such as animations or 3-D computer graphics models, from physical things. ...

Causes, Including Autoimmune Diseases, & Poisoning

Neuromuscular disease can be caused by circulatory problems (strokes, etc.), immunological and autoimmune disorders, the failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves myelin, genetic/hereditary disorders, such as Huntingdon's disease, certain rare tumors, the failure of the connections between the nerves and the muscle fibers, exposure to pernacious environmental chemicals, poisoning - including heavy-metal poisoning, and importantly, unknown causes. The failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves, the myelin, is seen in certain deficiency diseases, such as the failure of the body's system for absorbing vitamin B-12, and also the failure of the myelin in seen in multiple sclerosis and some other neurological diseases, especially in autoimmune diseases that are thought to attack the myelin. Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. ... Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. ... Myelin is an electrically insulating phospholipid layer that surrounds the axons of many neurons. ... Myelin is an electrically insulating phospholipid layer that surrounds the axons of many neurons. ... Cobalamin or vitamin B12 is a chemical compound that is also known as cyanocobalamine. ... Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. ...

Some neuromuscular diseases are hypothesized to be caused either by viral infections or by attack by little-known pernacious proteins called prions. For the bird called a prion, see Prion (bird) Prions - short for proteinaceous infectious particle - are infectious self-reproducing protein structures. ...

Diseases of the motor end plate include myasthenia gravis, a form of muscle weakness due to antibodies to the acetylcholine receptor, and its related condition Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS). Tetanus and botulism are bacterial infections in which bacterial toxins cause increased or decreased muscle tone, respectively. A motor end plate is the innervation of a muscle fiber which causes muscle contraction. ... Myasthenia gravis (sometimes abbreviated MG; from the Greek myastheneia, lit. ... Each antibody binds to a specific antigen; an interaction similar to a lock and key. ... The chemical compound acetylcholine, often abbreviated as ACh, was the first neurotransmitter to be identified. ... Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is a rare disorder of nerve-muscle (neuromuscular) junction. ... Tetanus is a medical condition that is characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. ... Botulism (Latin, botulus, sausage) is a rare, but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin, botulin, that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. ... Infection is also the title of an episode of the television series Babylon 5; see Infection (Babylon 5). ...

The myopathies are all diseases affecting the muscle itself, rather than its nervous control (??). In medicine, a myopathy is a neuromuscular disease in which the muscle fibers do not function for any one of many reasons, resulting in muscular weakness. ...

Muscular dystrophy is a large group of diseases, many of them hereditary or resulting from genetic errors, where the muscle integrity is disrupted. They lead to progressive loss of strength, high dependence and decreased life span. Muscular dystrophy refers to a group of genetic, hereditary muscle diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness. ... For the scientific journal Heredity see Heredity (journal) Heredity (the adjective is hereditary) is the transfer of characters from parent to offspring, either through their genes or through the social institution called inheritance (for example, a title of nobility is passed from individual to individual according to relevant customs and...

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 dramatically to glucocorticoids (e.g. prednisolone).
• Polymyositis, dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis are autoimmune conditions in which the muscle is affected.
• Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscular tissue due to any cause. While it may not lead to any muscular symptoms at all, the myoglobin thus released may cause acute renal failure.

Inflammation is the first response of the immune system to infection or irritation and may be referred to as the innate cascade. ... Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) - is a disorder associated with pain in the shoulder and hip. ... Temporal arteritis, also called giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an inflammatory disease of blood vessels (most commonly large and medium arteries of the head). ... Glucocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones characterised by an ability to bind with the cortisol receptor and trigger similar effects. ... Prednisolone is the active metabolite of prednisone. ... {{ }} Polymyositis is a type of inflammatory myopathy, related to dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis. ... X-Ray of the knee in a patient with dermatomyositis. ... Inclusion body myositis (IBM) is an inflammatory muscle disease, characterized by slowly progressive wasting and weakness of the arms and legs. ... Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. ... Rhabdomyolysis is the rapid breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue due to traumatic injury, either mechanical, physical or chemical. ... An X-ray diffraction image for the protein myoglobin. ...

Tumors

Tumors of muscle are of the soft tissue sarcoma‎ group and include: For malignant tumors specifically, see cancer. ... Malignant (cancerous) tumors that develop in soft tissue are called sarcomas, a term that comes from a Greek word meaning fleshy growth. ...

• Smooth muscle: leiomyoma (benign, very common in the uterus), leiomyosarcoma (malignant, very rare)
• Striated muscle: rhabdomyoma (benign) and rhabdomyosarcoma (malignant) - both very rare
• Metastasis from elsewhere (e.g. lung cancer)

Smooth muscle has been implicated to play a role in a large number of diseases affecting blood vessels, the respiratory tract (e.g., asthma), the digestive system (e.g. irritable bowel syndrome) and the urinary tract (e.g., urinary incontinence). These disease processes are not usually confined to the muscular tissue. In general, muscle tumors are rare, since muscle cells are not constantly dividing cells. A leiomyoma (plural is leiomyomata) is a benign smooth muscle neoplasm that is not premalignant. ... This article is about female reproductive anatomy. ... Leiomyosarcoma is a type of sarcoma which is a neoplasm of smooth muscle. ... A rhabdomyoma is a benign tumor of muscle. ... A rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of cancer, specifically a sarcoma (cancer of connective tissues), in which the cancer cells are thought to arise from skeletal muscle progenitors. ... For the musical composition, see Metastasis (Xenakis composition). ... Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. ... f you all The blood vessels are part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body. ... In humans the respiratory tract is the part of the anatomy that has to do with the process of respiration or breathing. ... what was here was sick and improperly spelled. ... The urinary system is a system of organs, tubes, muscles, and nerves that work together to create, store, and carry, urine. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... A simplified, global view of a neuromuscular junction: 1. ...

Tumors of the thymus gland are implicated in some cases of myasthenia gravis and other neuromuscular diseases. Thymus, see Thyme. ... Myasthenia gravis (sometimes abbreviated MG; from the Greek myastheneia, lit. ...

Tumors of the peripheral nervous system are known, but rare, because nerve cells are not ones that divide very much under normal circumstances.

See also

• Muscle
• ICD-10 Chapter XIII: Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue

• Centronuclear myopathy
• Myotubular myopathy