New Survival Target for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

We report a patient with a typical phenotype and clinical history of Duchenne muscular dystrophy who is currently 53 years old. Because of improvements in cardiopulmonary care, there has been a great improvement in survival and preservation of quality of life for many of these patients. Whereas it is no longer rare to find patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy living into their fifth decade, this is the first report of a patient in his sixth decade of life. We believe that besides use of continuous noninvasive respiratory support, the fortuitous absence of dilated cardiomyopathy associated with the particular point mutation of his dystrophin gene has permitted prolonged survival.