Hypotonia

Learn more about Hypotonia and other medical symptoms..

Below you can find further information on this medical area. All this information is freely available for re-distribution both privately and commercially, according to the GNU free documentation license.

Hypotonia is a serious medical condition that entails abnormally decreased muscle tone, and is almost always found as early as infancy. Diagnosing hypotonia is usually relatively easy; what tends to be difficult for doctors is finding out what is causing the hypotonia. Despite the setbacks that hypotonia guarantees to a person's life, treatment and therapy can help hypotonic patients to adjust to their disability.

Characteristics
Infants who suffer from hypotonia are often described as feeling and appearing as though they are "rag dolls" and are unable to bend their ligaments while they are able to extend them beyond normal lengths. Often the movement of the head is uncontrollable; not in the sense of spasmatic movement, but chronic ataxia. Hypotonic patients fail to develop basic motor skills, posture control, and movement skills. Due to the looseness of a hypotonic patient's body, special care and attention must be given.

Tests for Diagnosing Hypotonia
Diagnosing a patient includes obtaining family medical history and a physical examination, and may include such additional tests as computerized tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, electroencephalogram (EEG), blood tests, chromosome karyotyping, spinal taps, electromyography muscle tests, or muscle and nerve biopsy.

Causes of Hypotonia
central nervous system dysfunction
genetic disorders (the most common cause)
muscle disorders
[edit]
Conditions known to cause Hypotonia
Down's syndrome
Guillian-Barre syndrome
myasthenia gravis
poliomyelitis
Prader-Willi syndrome
kernicterus
meningitis
congential cerebellar ataxia
encephalitis
Werdnig-Hoffman disease
myotonic dystrophy
infant botulism
familial dysautonomia (Riley-Day syndrome)
Marfan's syndrome
muscular dystrophy
achondroplasia
trisomy 13
sepsis
Aicardi syndrome
Canavan disease
congenital hypothyroidism
hypervitaminosis D
Krabbe disease
Menkes syndrome
metachromatic leukodystrophy
methylmalonic acidemia
rickets
spinal muscular atrophy type 1
Tay-Sachs disease
abnormal vaccine reaction

Back to main Medical Symptom page

Can't find what you are looking for?
Use our site search facility...

Home I Search Site I Site map I Conditions I Symptoms I News Archive I Forum I Contact us I About us I Access Keys

All information published on this web site is for information purposes only. The content of this web site should not be used for a conclusive diagnosis or for choosing a treatment. The content on this site has been provided as a guideline and general information it is not intended to replace professional medical care. In all serious cases it is advisable to recieve attention from a qualified medical practitioner.