[Cardiac manifestations of muscular dystrophies]

Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disease group. In the last few years, remarkable progress has been made in understanding the close und various relations between skeletal muscle disease and heart muscle disease. Cardiac involvement has been documented in a number of primary MDs and is even the dominant feature in some of them. The myocardium can be affected in the form of a dilated cardiomyopathy while the conduction system can be affected resulting in arrhythmias and conduction defects. Many patients with MD die because of cardiac complications like sudden cardiac death or congestive heart failure. Detailed clinical data about cardiac involvement are available for Duchenne/Becker MD, Emery-Dreifuss MD, myotonic dystrophy, and the different limb girdle MDs. Cardiac manifestations were also found in congenital MD, central core disease, proximal myotonic myopathy, and nemaline myopathy. No data about cardiac abnormalities are available in oculopharyngeal MD and rippling muscle disease. The heart of patients with primary MD should be carefully investigated because of the life-threatening events caused by cardiac complications. There is a strong need for a close collaboration between neurologists and cardiologists in order to provide optimal disease management for the affected patients.