Cardiac Involvement in Becker Muscular Dystrophy: Insights from Echocardiographic Analysis

Becker muscular dystrophy is an infrequent genetic disorder that results from dystrophin gene mutations. Cardiac involvement is a primary manifestation. The time of onset of underlying cardiac functional abnormalities remains largely undefined. This study involved 17 pediatric patients with Becker muscular dystrophy who visited our hospital between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2018, and underwent echocardiographic imaging analysis. Another set of 17 controls matched for age and sex to the patient cohort was chosen for comparison. Patients with Becker muscular dystrophy demonstrated a decline in echocardiographic measures, especially deformation parameters, compared with the control group. This alteration is influenced by age. Our findings suggest that early echocardiographic monitoring may help identify subclinical cardiac dysfunction, particularly in younger patients (<10 years of age).