Abstract
Determination as to whether a patient with distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles (DMRV) would experience clinically significant effects of muscle strengthening exercise was made. The patient, a 43-year-old woman with DMRV underwent traditional physical therapy and muscle strengthening exercise using a Cybex machine. The effects of the exercise were quantified by measuring peak torque of knee extension and flexion and CT data for the leg muscles. After muscle strengthening exercise for fifteen minutes/time, two times/day, five days/week for two months, isometric peak torque of knee flexion was found to have increased significantly (p<0.01) and isokinetic peak torque of knee extension and flexion also increased (p<0.01). Gastrocnemius muscle volume increased according to CT findings in the largest cross section of the calf bilaterally. Medically supervised muscle strengthening exercise is thus shown to significantly increase muscle strength in patients with DMRV provided disease progress is slow.
