Diagnosis DNA mutation analysis Sometimes muscle biopsy with immunostaining analysis of dystrophin Diagnosis is suspected by characteristic clinical findings, age at onset, and family history suggestive of X-linked recessive inheritance. Myopathic changes are noted on electromyography (rapidly recruited, short duration, low-amplitude motor unit potentials) and, when done, muscle biopsy shows necrosis and marked variation in muscle fiber size not segregated by motor unit.