Myotonic syndrome: causes, symptoms, treatment

Myotonic syndrome is a neuromuscular disorder characterized by the inability to relax the muscles after their contraction. Very often this disease occurs in children. In a broad sense, this diagnosis includes any difficulties with muscle relaxation (even those that are temporary), not related to pyramidal or extrapyramidal disruption of tonus.

Possible reasons

Myotonic syndrome, provided that it is congenital, is a hereditary disease. To date, medicine has not yet been able to accurately determine the causes leading to the development of myotonia, but as a provoking factor, most doctors call lesions of the subcortical nuclei, pathological processes in the cerebellum and disorders associated with autonomic nervous centers. In the case if the myotonic syndrome is not genetic, the child's pathologies, such as rickets, broken metabolism, all kinds of intrauterine disorders and birth trauma, can be identified as the causes . It should be noted that often there are cases when the diagnosis is not confirmed: the state of muscle tone of the baby can be mistakenly interpreted.

Clinical picture

Myotonic syndrome in children is characterized by a kind of difficulty in the motor act. If in normal muscle after contraction immediately relax, then in this case, on the contrary, there is a tonic stress. After several contractions are performed in a row, the muscle begins to be gradually developed. Further work is much easier. In general, the symptomatology in children begins to manifest from the lower limbs, so doctors advise parents to pay attention to how the baby rises and descends the stairs, whether he can walk fast, how he performs actions that require coordination and attention. If a person suffers from myotonia, all of the above actions will be given to him with great difficulty: the patients constantly lose their balance, now and again they fall down, before a series of movements for a long time they freeze on the spot. Another characteristic feature, which diagnoses myotonic syndrome - change Mechanical excitability of muscles. The doctor strikes lightly in the area of a certain group of muscles, and as a rule, the response consists in the appearance of a spasm, and it is accompanied by the formation of muscular ridges, which are slowly smoothed out. It is natural that such a tonic reaction is most often accompanied by general muscle weakness, which in turn leads to the most unpleasant consequences: undeveloped back muscles form an incorrect posture, weak muscles of the press inevitably lead to constipation and other problems with the intestine, weakness of the ocular muscles is excellent Background for the development of myopia. In addition, muscle hypotension usually accompanies general weakness, rapid fatigue and constant headaches. Women suffering from this disease are often unable to culminate in sex: they experience the so-called "myotonic orgasm", which is obtained with the help of intensive contractions of the pelvic muscles.

Treatment

Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment for genetically determined myotonia today. If the myotonic syndrome was caused by a specific cause, all efforts should be made to eliminate it. Among the effective methods experts call massage and electrophoresis.