Accelerated breakdown of immunoglobulin G (IgG) in myotonic dystrophy: a hereditary error of immunoglobulin catabolism.

Abstract

Myotonic dystrophy is a hereditary progressive muscular abnormality with dominant transmittance that was first proposed as a separate entity by Batten and Gibb (1) and by Steinert (2) in 1909. The muscular abnormality that is the dominant feature of the disease is characterized by weakness, wasting, and myotonia, especially of the facial, neck, and distal musculature. Other abnormalities frequently associated with the disease include frontal alopecia, cataracts, gonadal atrophy, low basal metabolic rate with normal thyroid function, impaired glucose tolerance, and electrocardiographic abnormalities.