Affiliations: Women and Children's Division, Section of Child
Neurology and Division of Surgery and Clinical Neuroscience, Department of
Neurology, Resource Centre for Inborn Muscular Diseases, Oslo University
Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway | Department of Pediatrics, Akershus University Hospital
HF, Lørenskog, Norway | Department of Pediatrics, Østfold County Hospital
HF, Fredrikstad, Norway | Women and Children's Division, Section of Child
Neurology, Oslo University Hospital HF Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Magnhild Rasmussen, Oslo University
Hospital, Women and Children's Division, Section of Child Neurology,
Rikshospitalet, P.O. Box 4950 Nydalen, N-0424 Oslo, Norway. Tel.: +47 23 07 00
00/45 02; Fax: +47 23 07 02 34; E-mail: magnhild.rasmussen@oslo-universitetssykehus.no
Abstract: To describe the group of patients under the age of 18 who have
neuromuscular disorders and are from a region with 1.65 million inhabitants in
South-Eastern Norway. Patients with known or suspected neuromuscular disorders
were identified by neuropediatricians/rehabilitation teams in the region. We
registered a total of 141 patients under the age of 18 who had a neuromuscular
diagnosis, giving a prevalence of 35.6 ×
10^{-5} in this population. It was possible to check the
diagnoses of 122 patients. Duchenne muscular dystrophy was the largest group,
followed by peripheral neuropathies, myotonic dystrophy and spinal muscular
atrophy. The prevalence figures for the different diagnostic entities are
discussed on the basis of previously reported studies from the same area, from
a comparable Swedish area and from other countries. We registered patients with
a broad spectrum of neuromuscular diagnoses in our health region. The
classical, well-known entities were the most prevalent conditions. It was
difficult to make a very specific diagnosis in quite a few cases.
