HISTOPATHOLOGY OF PROGRESSIVE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

Abstract

It is an established fact that the various clinical types of muscular dystrophies (facial, scapulohumeral and pseudohypertrophic) possess common histopathological features and form one disease process (Erb (1)). Of late, both muscular dystrophies and atrophies have been extensively studied, but mainly from the physiological-chemical points of view. Morphologic studies were for the most part confined to examinations—usually cursory—of small particles of muscle tissue obtained by biopsy. On the whole, the histopathology of the muscular system has been investigated less thoroughly than that of the nervous system. The present contribution presents the results of my observations of several cases of muscular dystrophy. In one case the study was made on postmortem material which had been embedded in celloidin and paraffin, and in three cases material obtained by biopsy was examined. The clinical histories of the cases, all of which were of many years' duration, presented no unusual features and will, therefore, be omitted.