Neuromuscular Disease: From Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Management (Monographs in Clinical Neuroscience, Vol. 18)

In the last few decades, important advances have changed the face of neuromuscular diseases. Once stagnant with hardly any prospect of therapy, the field has recently witnessed continuous progress thanks to genetic discoveries, which have opened a new era with potential treatment modalities and to immunological developments which have turned around the grave outcome of some diseases. Scientific work has resulted in deeper insights into the pathogenesis of neuromuscular diseases and has at the same time made fundamental changes in their classification necessary. This book reviews the electrophysiological, genetic and immunological bases of some of the major neuromuscular diseases and evaluates their importance pertaining to the clinical management of the patients. Included are up-to-date topics such as gene therapy, myoblast transfer and new drug trials.