Use be considered when a woman of childbearing age is diagnosed., limb girdle muscular dystrophy, and Miyoshi myopathy to frame the working diagnosis and next step; use it to sharpen the differential and avoid a false label. Make limb girdle muscular dystrophy the checkpoint that determines whether you escalate testing, narrow the differential, or change treatment.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy is a heterogeneous diagnosis defined by shoulder and pelvic girdle weakness; Direct genetic testing is the diagnostic standard for LGMD; Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy combines contractures, paraspinal involvement, and cardiac disease; Miyoshi myopathy starts distally and often targets the calves; Genetic subtyping matters because the prognosis and cardiac risk vary widely across these disorders