Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Archives of Disease in Childhood logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood
. 1973 May;48(5):386–388. doi: 10.1136/adc.48.5.386

Spinal muscular atrophy in childhood

Two clues to clinical diagnosis

A Moosa, V Dubowitz
PMCID: PMC1648366  PMID: 4703068

Abstract

A coarse tremor was noted in 13 children suffering from the childhood form of spinal muscular atrophy. Tremor has not been seen in any other condition producing proximal muscle weakness in childhood, and its presence should therefore suggest the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy.

In addition, the feet of patients with spinal muscular atrophy tended to evert, whereas in Duchenne muscular dystrophy there was either no deformity or a tendency to toe walking.

Full text

PDF
386

Images in this article

387FIG. 1
on p.387
387FIG. 2
on p.387

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BYERS R. K., BANKER B. Q. Infantile muscular atrophy. Arch Neurol. 1961 Aug;5:140–164. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1961.00450140022003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. DUBOWITZ V. INFANTILE MUSCULAR ATROPHY. A PROSPECTIVE STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO A SLOWLY PROGRESSIVE VARIETY. Brain. 1964 Dec;87:707–718. doi: 10.1093/brain/87.4.707. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. DUBOWITZ V. NONPROGRESSIVE NEUROGENIC MUSCULAR ATROPHY WITH 'VOLUNTARY FASCICULATION'. Proc R Soc Med. 1964 Feb;57:117–118. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gardner-Medwin D., Hudgson P., Walton J. N. Benign spinal muscular atrophy arising in childhood and adolescence. J Neurol Sci. 1967 Jul-Aug;5(1):121–158. doi: 10.1016/0022-510x(67)90013-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. KUGELBERG E., WELANDER L. Heredofamilial juvenile muscular atrophy simulating muscular dystrophy. AMA Arch Neurol Psychiatry. 1956 May;75(5):500–509. doi: 10.1001/archneurpsyc.1956.02330230050005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kennedy W. R., Alter M., Sung J. H. Progressive proximal spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy of late onset. A sex-linked recessive trait. Neurology. 1968 Jul;18(7):671–680. doi: 10.1212/wnl.18.7.671. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Munsat T. L., Woods R., Fowler W., Pearson C. M. Neurogenic muscular atrophy of infancy with prolonged survival. The variable course of Werdnig-Hoffmann Disease. Brain. 1969 Mar;92(1):9–24. doi: 10.1093/brain/92.1.9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Peters H. A., Opitz J. M., Goto I., Reese H. H. The benign proximal spinal progressive muscular atrophies. Acta Neurol Scand. 1968;44(5):542–560. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1968.tb05591.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Spiro A. J., Fogelson M. H., Goldberg A. C. Microcephaly and mental subnormalitiy in chronic progressive spinal muscular atrophy of childhood. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1967 Oct;9(5):594–601. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1967.tb02330.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. WOHLFART G., FEX J., ELIASSON S. Hereditary proximal spinal muscular atrophy, a clinical entity simulating progressive muscular dystrophy. Acta Psychiatr Neurol Scand. 1955;30(1-2):395–406. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES