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Myotonic dystrophy--the most common adult form of muscular dystrophy--is a chronic, progressive, and inherited neuromuscular condition presenting with multisystemic complications including distal muscle weakness, myotonia, hypersomnolence, early-onset cataracts, cardiac conduction abnormalities, and slurred speech and swallowing problems (Harper, 2001).
The most common adult form of MD, myotonic MD appears in two forms, type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is more common and is caused by an abnormally large number of repeats of a three-letter word (CTG) in genetic code. While most people have up to 37 repeats of CTG, people with myotonic can have up to 4,000. The number of repeats may reflect the severity of symptoms.