By Robert Johnson

SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY

SYMPTOMS INFANT

• Can have a breathing difficulty

• Difficulty feeding, food may go down windpipe instead of stomach

• Floppy infant, poor muscle tone

• Lack of head control

• Little movements

SYMPTOMS CHILD

• Much less symptoms then infant

• A increase in severe respiratory infections, frequently

• Nasal speech

• Your posture begins to get worse

• SMA type I- infants born with very little muscle tone, very weak and will have feeding and breathing problems

• SMA type II- symptoms don’t start to appear until 6 months to 2 years

• SMA type III- mild disease, starts in childhood/adolescence

• SMA type IV- even milder, weakness starts in adulthood

4 TYPES

• 4 in every 100,000 people have it, 1 in every 25,000

• 1 out of every 40 people are genetic carriers of the disease

• When both parents have gene 1 of every 4 kids get it

• You should check with your doctor before having kids if you have the gene

PREVALENCE

• Most of the time to be affected the person has to get the defective gene from both of their parents autosomal recessive genetic disease

• Missing or mutated gene SMN

• Produces protein

• Attacks nerve cells in spinal cord

CAUSES/TRANSMITTED

• No treatment for weakness caused by disease

• Support care is very important

• Attention to respiratory system

• Physical therapy to prevent scoliosis

TREATMENTS

• The second leading cause of Neuromuscular disease

• People with SMA type I rarely live longer then 2-3 years

• SMA is the number one genetic killer of children under the age of two.

INTERESTING FACTS

WORK CITIED • Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. Spinal Muscular Atrophy. U.S. National Library of Medicine,

18 Nov. 0000. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001991/>.

• "Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy - What Causes Spinal Muscular Atrophy?" Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy - What Causes Spinal Muscular Atrophy? N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://www.fsma.org/FSMACommunity/understandingsma/WhatCausesSMA/>.

• "Spinal Muscular Atrophy: MedlinePlus." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spinalmuscularatrophy.html>.