Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about muscular dystrophy.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zerodefinals.com slash muscular dystrophy

or in the neurology section of the Zero to Finals Pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Muscular dystrophy is an umbrella term for various genetic conditions that cause gradual

weakening and wasting of muscles.

The main muscular dystrophy to know about for the purpose of exams is Duchenne's muscular

dystrophy. It's worth being aware of the others. The different types of muscular dystrophy

are Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, meyotonic dystrophy, facioscapular humoral muscular dystrophy, ocular pharyngeal muscular dystrophy,

limb girdle muscular dystrophy, and emery-drethus muscular dystrophy.

Let's talk about gower's sign.

Children with proximal muscle weakness use a specific technique to stand up from a lying position,

and this is called gower's sign.

To stand up, they get onto their hands and knees first, then they push their hips up and backwards like a downward dog yoga pose.

They then shift their weight backwards and transfer their hands to their knees.

Whilst keeping their legs mostly straight, they walk their hands up their legs to get their

upper body erect.

They do this because the muscles around the pelvis are not strong enough to get the

upper body erect without the help of their arms.

A tom tip for you, Gawa's sign is a favourite in exams.

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