World-Class Heart Care for Neuromuscular Conditions
Muscular dystrophy impacts all muscles in the body, including the heart.
Four of the more common types of muscular dystrophy that affect the heart include Duchenne, Becker, limb-girdle and some types of congenital muscular dystrophy. As the disease progresses, heart and respiratory issues are common.
Why Choose Us?
The Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s provides advanced treatment interventions for patients with heart problems related to muscular dystrophy.
Working in collaboration with the Comprehensive Neuromuscular Center, our Advanced Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure care team attracts patients from all over the world for evaluation and treatment, making us one of the largest and most distinguished international programs treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Today, cardiologists at the Heart Institute are recognized experts in advanced cardiomyopathy and heart failure, presenting and publishing the latest standards of cardiomyopathy care and research, including all forms of muscular dystrophy.
Our Treatment Approach
We work collaboratively with the Comprehensive Neuromuscular Center to ensure that patient care is coordinated among our leading specialists, including cardiology, neuromuscular, pulmonology, and orthopaedics.
Our integrated heart and lung approach is vital for muscular dystrophy patients, ensuring that multiple system organs are treated in tandem in order to delay heart and lung failure. Our pulmonologists and cardiologists meet with the patient at the same time, ensuring consistency across disciplines.
It is our goal to keep the native heart as long as possible. Our patients have access to current adult treatment strategies, including adult heart medications.
Additionally, we continue to see patients over 18 to ensure continuity of care as patients age from youth to adulthood.
Genetic testing is also conducted on female carriers of the sometimes genetic disorder and the rest of the family. One third of the female genetic carriers will develop heart problems, many of whom do not know they are at risk.