Muscular dystrophy refers to, not one, but a group of muscle diseases. These diseases have three features in common: they are hereditary; they are progressive; and each causes a characteristic and selective pattern of weakness. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most prevalent and severe childhood form of this group of diseases. Each form of muscular dystrophy is caused by a defect in a specific gene. In 1986, scientists discovered exactly which piece of genetic material is missing in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. They named it for Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne(1806-1875), a French neurologist who was one