Epidemiological Study of Muscular Disorders in Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

Few comprehensive epidemiological studies of the prevalence of muscle diseases have been undertaken, and none has been carried out in our locality. The present cross-sectional study was conducted in Assiut Governorate (Upper Egypt) to estimate the prevalence of different types of primary muscular disorder in 1997. The study involved 52,203 subjects, 15,617 (30%) from the rural community and 36,586 (70%) from the urban community. Patients were identified from a door-to-door survey, and all were subjected to a full clinical examination, with confirmation of the diagnosis through electrophysiological, and biochemical investigations. Histopathological studies were performed for the classification of muscular dystrophies. Forty patients with muscular disorders were identified, with a point prevalence of 76.6 per 100,000 in the total community with no significant differences between the rural and urban communities. The creatine kinase level was abnormally high (>225 IU/l) in 80% of the cases, increased in all patients with muscular dystrophy or myositis, in 88.8% of patients with systemic myopathy and 66.6% of patients with myotonia. None of the cases of myasthenia showed an increase in the creatine kinase level. The lifetime prevalence per 100,000 was 26.8 for muscular dystrophy, 11.49 for myotonia, 11.49 for myositis, 17.24 for systemic myopathy and 9.57 for myasthenia.

Prevalence of Muscular Dystrophies: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The included studies presented data on the prevalence of muscular dystrophies collected between 1966 and 2013. There were ten studies conducted in Italy [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25], seven from the United Kingdom [26,27,28,29,30,31,32], three in Japan [33,34,35], two in Sweden [36,37], and Canada [38,39], and one from China [40], Croatia [41], Egypt [42], Libya [43], Netherlands [44], New Zealand [45], Norway [46], Portugal [47], Russia [48], Slovenia [49], South Africa [50], Spain [51], Taiwan [52], and the United States [53]. …”

Epidemiology of Major Neurological Disorders Project in Al Kharga District, New Valley, Egypt

“…3.2/100,000 9.57/100,000 in Assiut, Egypt [42] 8.29/100,000 in Trento, Italy [46] 10/100,000 in Norway [47] ( table 2 ) and Bell's palsy (1.92/1,000 inhabitants aged 6 8 years) ( table 4 ). Our findings are lower than that recorded in the UK in a prospective community-based study, where stroke was the neurological disorder most commonly encountered, with a lifetime prevalence rate of 9/1,000 inhabitants, followed by transient ischemic attack (5/1,000) and active epilepsy (4/1,000).…”

Prevalence of Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophies in the United States

“…6 Additional DMD or BMD studies were less comparable to ours, as they provided estimates per total residents rather than those for male individuals only, or reported estimates among live male births. [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Prevalence differences identified between our study and previous studies may reflect the changes in diagnostic methods over the past quarter century; many studies 5,[8][9][10]12,16,19 predated current diagnostic methods, potentially leading to misclassification of muscular dystrophy type. Prevalence differences identified may also be due, in part, to the racial/ ethnic composition of our sample; specifically, our cases were mostly non-Hispanic white and had insufficient numbers of cases to examine estimates for some racial/ethnic groups (eg, Asian and Pacific Islander).…”

“…6 Additional DMD or BMD studies were less comparable to ours, as they provided estimates per total residents rather than those for male individuals only, or reported estimates among live male births. [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Romitti et al …”