Current status of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the second most common lethal genetic disorder in humans. With the advent of molecular genetic technology, the definition of this disease has been modified to include an abnormality of dystrophin in muscle--a dystrophinopathy. Accurate genetic counseling is possible using methods of deletion detection and linkage analysis. Treatment of this type of muscular dystrophy may soon mean the routine use of steroids and later include direct injection of an artificial gene for dystrophin.