While there are many references to skeletal deformities (anomalies of size and shape of the skull, funnel-shaped chest, kyphoscoliosis and deformities of the pelvis and foot1 ) in the vast literature on progressive muscular dystrophy, comparatively few papers have dealt with the osseous atrophy found in association with this muscular disease.
On the other hand, some of the authors (Curschman,2 Jendrassik1) who alluded to such an association claimed that osseous atrophy is not an infrequent accompaniment of muscular dystrophy. This osseous atrophy at first thought appears to be a secondary process, a disuse phenomenon due to muscular inactivity. Such an assumption, however, is not justified in the face of arguments advanced by authoritative writers.
As early as 1873, the subject was given a discussion a chapter in length in Friedreich's3 monograph on muscular dystrophy. He reported a case of his own and cited an earlier similar observation