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Review
. 2023 Jun 3;15(6):e39903.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.39903. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Treatment of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD): A Systematic Review

Alex S Aguirre  1 , Olga M Astudillo Moncayo  2 , Johanna Mosquera  3 , Veronica E Muyolema Arce  4 , Camila Gallegos  5 , Juan Fernando Ortiz  6 , Andres F Andrade  7 , Sebastian Oña  1 , Maja J Buj  8
Affiliations
Review

Treatment of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD): A Systematic Review

Alex S Aguirre et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is the third most common type of muscular dystrophy. This disease presents as a slowly progressive asymmetric muscle weakness that involves the facial, scapular, and upper arm muscles mainly. Currently, there is no established consensus on this disease treatment in terms of medications. We assessed the response to the treatment of the drugs utilized in clinical trials by performing a systematic literature review in English using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews (PRISMA) and meta-analyses. We only used human clinical trials in patients diagnosed with FSHD that received consistent pharmacological treatment. We included 11 clinical trials that fulfilled our criteria. We concluded that albuterol had statistically significant results in three out of four clinical trials, with improved elbow flexors muscle strength. Vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc gluconate, and selenomethionine showed significant improvement in the maximal voluntary contraction and endurance limit time of quadriceps muscle. At the same time, diltiazem and MYO-029 demonstrate no improvement in function, strength, or muscle mass. Losmapimod, currently in phase I of the ReDUX4 trial, showed promising results. Peradventure, more clinical trials are still needed to address this subject. Nevertheless, this review provides a clear and concise update on the treatment for this disease.

Keywords: albuterol; diltiazem; facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy; losmapimod; myo029; salbutamol; vitamin c; vitamin e; zinc..

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. PRISMA flow chart of this systematic review.
PRISMA, preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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