MDA News and Updates

R. Rodney Howell — respected geneticist, pediatrician and chairman of the MDA Board of Directors — has been honored by the March of Dimes for playing a key role in developing the uniform panel of serious disorders for which nearly every baby in the United States now is tested.

Advances in technology have led to greater sensitivity in imaging techniques, increasing scientists' ability to see into the brain and spinal cord.

An international patientregistry (database) is gathering information about children and adults with any form of congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD), a congenital my

As scientists learn more about what our DNA can tell us about health and disease, public interest has intensified and genetic testing has become increasingly common.

Idebenone (under the brand name Catena) in July 2008 received conditional market approval in Canada for the treatment of Friedreich's ataxia (FA).

In the United States, a disease or disorder is defined as “rare” when it affects fewer than 200,000 Americans at any given time; in Europe, when it affects less than one in 2,000 people.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host a public hearing Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, in Silver Spring, Md., to discuss the development of drugs for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Anecdotal evidence has long described a positive association between being lean or underweight and developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Prednisone and other drugs in the corticosteroid family have become standard treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in much of the world for almost a decade. In this disorder, they slow the decline of muscle function and prolong walking ability.