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NEWS RELEASES
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Editor's note:
Watch video of
Dr. Jeffrey Towbin discussing the correlation between muscular
dystrophy and heart disease. To receive a copy of the entire video,
or arrange an interview with Dr. Towbin, please contact Carol
Wittman.
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HOUSTON, (Aug. 28, 2006)
– As fall approaches and the country rallies to support muscular
dystrophy patients, a genetics researcher at Texas
Children's Heart Center warns that MD patients and their moms
have a significant risk for fatal heart muscle disease.
The condition, known as cardiomyopathy, damages heart muscle
strength and affects the heart’s ability to pump blood to the rest
of the body. It eventually leads to congestive heart failure.
“Few people may know that cardiac disease, particularly dilated
cardiomyopathy and heart failure is the major cause of mortality in
patients with muscular dystrophy,” said Dr.
Jeffrey A. Towbin, chief of cardiology at Texas
Children's Hospital and professor of pediatric cardiology at Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston. “Now we know that mothers of
these boys are also at risk of developing the same form of
cardiomyopathy sometime in their 40s or 50s. For this reason, both
boys and their moms should be evaluated by cardiologists and
consider getting an echocardiogram,” Towbin said.
In the early 1990s, Towbin was the first researcher to identify
mutations of the dystrophin gene responsible for Becker and Duchenne
muscular dystrophy, as the cause of X-linked dilated cardiomyopathy.
His studies lead him to recommend that MD patients be screened for
heart problems starting at age 10.
In the
Pediatric Cardiovascular Genetics clinic at Texas Children's
Hospital, Towbin and his team start with a detailed family history
and an echocardiogram or
ultrasound of the patient’s heart, which, at that age, generally
shows the heart to be normal. They follow up with echocardiograms
on the patients each year. When Towbin sees the earliest evidence
of dilated cardiomyopathy, he prescribes medication or other
therapies to prevent the child from experiencing further heart
deterioration.
"In the past decade, we have been able to help many muscular
dystrophy patients live beyond 25 or 30 years of age instead of 16
to 20 years,” said Towbin. “Now we advise mothers who are gene
carriers that they can also develop this same heart problem and need
good healthcare including cardiovascular evaluation and follow-up.”
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