What happens in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease?
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is also called hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease results in smaller, weaker muscles. You may also experience loss of sensation and muscle contractions, and difficulty walking. Foot deformities such as hammertoes and high arches also are common.
How fast does Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease progress?
Depending on the type of CMT, onset can be from birth to adulthood, and progression is typically slow. CMT usually isn’t life-threatening, and it rarely affects the brain.
Is Charcot-Marie-Tooth curable?
There’s no cure for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), but therapies are available to help reduce your symptoms and enable you to live as independently as possible.
What does CMT pain feel like?
Because CMT causes damage to sensory nerve fibers (axons), people with CMT can feel tingling and burning sensations in the hands and feet, usually causing only mild discomfort but sometimes causing pain. The sense of touch is diminished, as is the ability to sense changes in temperature.
Can CMT be painful?
Paradoxically, despite sensory loss, some people with CMT experience pain — a combination of painful muscle cramps and neuropathic pain. This pain is not caused by an external trigger but by defective signals in sensory axons. Both types of pain usually can be alleviated with medication.
Can you have CMT and not know it?
Because longer nerves are affected first, symptoms usually begin in the feet and lower legs and then can affect the fingers, hands, and arms. Most individuals with CMT have some amount of physical disability, although some people may never know they have the disease.
Can CMT make you tired?
Fatigue is a common symptom in CMT. A study, published in the Journal of Neurology in 2010 and based on questionnaire given patients and an age- and sex-matched control group, reported that fatigue levels were significantly higher in people with CMT.
How does Charcot Marie Tooth effect the body?
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is one of a group of disorders that cause damage to the peripheral nerves -the nerves that transmit information and signals from the brain and spinal cord to and from the rest of the body, as well as sensory information such as touch back to the spinal cord and brain. CMT can also directly affect the nerves that control the muscles.
Does Charcot Marie Tooth affect the brain?
Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease affects the nerves outside the spinal cord and brain. People with the condition can have problems with their feet and trouble balancing. Three doctors — Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Marie and Howard Henry Tooth – identified a nerve disease back in 1886.
How many genes cause Charcot Marie Tooth disease?
Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathies belong to the most common neurogenetic disorders. To date, mutations in more than 40 genes are known to be able to cause CMT. This genetic heterogeneity is a challenge for genetic diagnostics.
What are Charcot deformities?
The Charcot deformity is described as neuroarthropathy of the foot and ankle, which typically manifests in the forefoot, midfoot and ankle region.