Diagnostic utility of skin biopsy in dystrophinopathies

Muscle biopsy is an important diagnostic modality and screening test for the diagnosis of dystrophinopathies. Sometimes muscle biopsies are needed for the diagnosis when genetic tests are inconclusive and are also useful for immunoblotting assay of the dystrophin protein. However, the procedure is painful, requires anesthesia and sometimes needs to be repeated. This study was undertaken to elucidate the role of skin biopsy in the diagnosis of dystrophinopathies and to validate if it can be utilized as a useful adjunct/replacement for the muscle biopsy.

Paired skin and muscle biopsies were studied from 39 patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), 4 patients with Becker's muscular dystrophy (BMD) and 37 controls. Immunostaining for dystrophin and utrophin was done on frozen sections of the test group and controls and their staining pattern in skin biopsies was compared with corresponding muscle biopsies.

Immunostaining for dystrophin was negative in the skin biopsies of all patients (39/39, 100%) with DMD and was only weakly expressed in skin of BMD patients (4/4, 100%). Dystrophin was strongly expressed on arrector pili muscle cells of all control patients (94.6%) except two cases in whom it was weakly expressed. Utrophin was expressed on the arrector pili muscle cells of DMD patients (39/39, 100%) as well as controls (30/37, 81.1%).

Our study suggests that skin biopsy is very useful for the diagnosis of dystrophinopathies and their differentiation from other muscle diseases. It has high degrees of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. It can be a useful adjunct/replacement for the muscle biopsy especially when repeated biopsies are required for monitoring therapy or in patients with advanced DMD where extreme fibrosis, adipose tissue infiltration and inflammation make interpretation of the muscle biopsy difficult. Skin biopsy is a simple, cost effective, less invasive and less traumatic diagnostic procedure when compared with muscle biopsy. This is even more pertinent because patients with muscular dystrophies have a higher risk for any form of general anesthesia. A smaller scar and fewer chances of infection at the site of biopsy are other additional advantages of skin biopsy over muscle biopsy.