Changes demonstrable by x-rays occur in the long bones, spine, and soft tissues of patients with muscular dystrophy.* Most authors have regarded these findings as part of the disease; they have not correlated them with the severity of the disease. Lewitan and Nathanson15 pointed out that, "the bone changes are purely secondary to the muscle involvement."
The hospitalization of a group of children with muscular dystrophy has provided the opportunity for a study correlating the radiographic changes with the severity of the disease.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Roentgenograms of the vertebral column, skull, long bones, wrists, and thorax were made of 31 children whose history, physical findings, laboratory studies, and muscle biopsy were compatible with the diagnosis of juvenile form of muscular dystrophy. Films of the spine were examined for signs of scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis, and "caninization" (i. e., apparent increase in the altitude of the vertebral bodies) and films