Cardiac complications in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are the result of cardiac muscle involvement that accompanies the deterioration of skeletal muscle in the disease.

The use of cardiac-specific prophylactic treatment is beneficial and recommended in DMD, but new approaches may add complementary treatment options.

DMD Cardiomyopathy

DMD results from mutations in the DMD gene. The loss of the coded protein dystrophin has cascading consequences: skeletal and cardiac muscle deterioration, a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic immune bias that detracts from repair, and clinical loss of ambulation and other functions amid life-threatening cardiac and respiratory crises.

Clinically apparent cardiomyopathy often emerges by age 10 and is nearly universal by age 18. Subtle signs have b

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