Pneumonia and Cardiac Function in Patients with Muscular Dystrophy

Pneumonia and Cardiac Function in Patients with Muscular Dystrophy Background: Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) suffer from progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. Weakness of the respiratory muscles leads to decline in respiratory function and recurrent pneumonia. With chronic respiratory support, more patients may survive pulmonary complications and succumb to heart failure and ventricular arrhythmias associated with their cardiomyopathy. The relationship between pneumonia and its impact on cardiomyopathy has not been well explored. We hypothesized that pneumonia in a patient with …