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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Jun 26, 2016; 8(6): 356-361
Published online Jun 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i6.356
Cardiomyopathy in becker muscular dystrophy: Overview
Rady Ho, My-Le Nguyen, Paul Mather
Rady Ho, My-Le Nguyen, Paul Mather, Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States
Author contributions: Ho R and Nguyen ML conducted literatures search and wrote the entire manuscript; Mather P reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rady Ho, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, 111 S. 11th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States. rady.ho@jefferson.edu
Telephone: +1-407-4040231 Fax: +1-215-5030052
Received: December 27, 2015
Peer-review started: December 28, 2015
First decision: February 2, 2016
Revised: April 11, 2016
Accepted: April 21, 2016
Article in press: April 22, 2016
Published online: June 26, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder involving mutations of the dystrophin gene. This condition is rare but not uncommon. However, there are limited articles on this topic. Patients with BMD can present with mental retardation and diffuse muscular dystrophy. Cardiomyopathy is the number one cause of death in BMD. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of BMD pathophysiology and management. The paper will discuss both the established treatments as well as exciting new research on gene therapy.