DYSTONIA
by jessica ning
Definition of dystonia
- Dystonia is a movement disorder that causes the muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily.
- The involuntary muscle contractions force the body into repetitive and often twisting movements as well as awkward, irregular postures.
- Dystonia may affect a single body area or be generalized throughout multiple muscle groups.
Description of the symptoms
- Include involuntary muscle contractions that cause repetitive movements or distorted postures
- Begin in a single area, such as your foot, hand or neck
- May occur during a specific action, such as handwriting
- May worsen with stress, fatigue or anxiety
- May become more noticeable over time
Cause of the dystonia
- Most cases of dystonia do not have a specific cause. Dystonia seems to be related to a problem in the basal ganglia. That's the area of the brain that is responsible for initiating muscle contractions. The problem involves the way the nerve cells communicate.
- Acquired dystonia is caused by damage to the basal ganglia. The damage could be the result of:brain trauma,stroke,tumor,oxygen deprivation,infection
drug reactions,poisoning caused by lead or carbon monoxide.
- Idiopathic or primary dystonia is often inherited from a parent. Some carriers of the disorder may never develop a dystonia themselves. And the symptoms may vary widely among members of the same family.
- Dystonia is a mutation ,however, dystonia can also be hereditary or caused by other factors such as medication .
How the dystonia is inherited
- Dystonisa is sex-linked.
- There is a particular chromosome it is located on.
- The primary the primary pathoge of dystonia is unknown yet. Most of them is sporadic disorder. A few people from high-risk families have autosomal dominant or recessive, or X chromosome linkage.
How the dystonia is treated
- The dystonia is treated by medications.
- Treatment with drugs, local injection of type A botulinum toxin and surgical treatment.
How the dystonia is diagnosed
Dystonia can be diagnosed according to the history, involuntary movement characteristic and abnormal posture and position, etc.
- Blood or urine tests.
- Computerized tomography.
- Magnetic resonance imaging .
- Electromyography .
- genetic counseling is not an option for diagnosing dystonia
How many and what type of people are likely to have the dystonia
In addition to the children and teenagers, middle-aged and old people are over 40 dystonia is a high-risk groups.As many as 250,000 people in the United States have dystonia, making it the third most common movement disorder behind essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease.
My harvest
I am very appreciated that I can have a chance to do this activity. From my research I have known dystonia's cause, description of the symptoms, treatment ect. As a teenager, we should prevent from having dystonia since dystonia is commom to teens.