In the last few years there has been an increase in interest among neurologists and geneticists in the spinal muscular atrophies. With the advent of several relatively sophisticated diagnostic procedures many patients once thought to be suffering from muscular dystrophy have in fact been found to have spinal muscular atrophy. The spinal muscular atrophies may be defined as a group of inherited ...

In the last few years there has been an increase in interest among neurologists and geneticists in the spinal muscular atrophies. With the advent of several relatively sophisticated diagnostic procedures many patients once thought to be suffering from muscular dystrophy have in fact been found to have spinal muscular atrophy. The spinal muscular atrophies may be defined as a group of inherited ...

Spinal muscular atrophy, a hereditary degenerative disorder of lower motor neurons associated with progressive muscle weakness and atrophy, is the most common genetic cause of infant mortality. It is caused by decreased levels of the "survival of motor neuron" (SMN) protein. Its inheritance pattern is autosomal recessive, resulting from mutations involving the SMN1 gene on chromosome 5q13. Howe...

Spinal muscular atrophy is one of the most devastating neurological diseases of childhood. Affected infants and children suffer from often severe muscle weakness caused by degeneration of lower motor neurons in the spinal cord and brainstem. Identification of the causative genetic mutation in most cases has resulted in development of potential treatment strategies. To test these new drugs, clin...

Abstract Background Type 1 spinal muscular atrophy is a rare, progressive neuromuscular disease that caused by low levels of functional survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. Risdiplam an or...

Hereditary spinal muscular atrophy is a motor neuron disorder characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy due to degeneration of the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. Initially, the disease was considered purely as an autosomal recessive condition caused by loss-of-function SMN1 mutations on 5q13. Recent developments in next generation sequencing technologies, however, have unveiled a gr...

The clinical, electrophysiological, histological and ultrastructural features of a patient with chronic spinal muscular atrophy of adolescent onset associated with hypertrophied calf-muscle are described. This recently recognised entity must be distinguished from other types of spinal muscular atrophy.

Spinal muscular atrophy is a common autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron gene (SMN), which exists in 2 nearly identical copies (SMN1 and SMN2). Exon 7 of SMN1 is homozygously absent in about 95% of spinal muscular atrophy patients, whereas the loss of SMN2 does not cause spinal muscular atrophy. Small mutations are found in the other 5% of ...

The natural history of spinal muscular atrophy type I (SMA-I) has changed as improved medical support has become available. With investigational drugs for spinal muscular atrophy now in clinical trials, efficient trial design focuses on enrolling recently diagnosed infants, providing best available supportive care, and minimizing subject variation. The quandary has arisen whether it is ethicall...