CT of Primary Muscle Diseases

Seventy-five patients with a variety of muscular dystrophies were studied using computed tomography (CT). At least 11 slices were taken in each patient, from the forearm to the lower leg. Sufficient information was obtained to provide some CT characteristics of several dystrophies, including Duchenne mus-cular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral syndrome, limb-girdle muscle myopathies, and myopathic dystrophies. CT promises to be of increasing value in these areas in the future. Computed tomography (CT) has not been widely used in the diagnosis and investigation of muscular dystrophies. The pauc ity of reports in the literaturE ' bears this out. The appearance of muscle tissues and muscle morphology are very characteri stic on CT, however, and many of the features that are early indicators of dystrophic diseases (e.g., atrophied or pseudoatrophied lesions, degeneration, or fatty infiltrations) are easily recognized. Whil