Muscle weakness can have various causes, ranging in severity from 'troubling' to 'very serious'. Finding the true cause means ruling out or confirming each possibility – in other words, diagnosis.
Diagnosis is usually a complex process due to the sheer number of possible causes and related symptoms. In order to diagnose muscle weakness, we could:
Cause | Probability | Status |
---|---|---|
Male Hypogonadism | 98% | Confirm |
Fluorosis | 24% | Unlikely |
Dermatomyositis | 23% | Unlikely |
Nephrotic Syndrome | 2% | Ruled out |
Vitamin B12 Need | 1% | Ruled out |
Muscular Dystrophy | 1% | Ruled out |
Guillain-Barre Syndrome | 0% | Ruled out |
Polymyositis | 0% | Ruled out |
Do you have specific muscles that feel weak, or weaker than they should be?
Possible responses:
→ Don't know→ No → One muscle is slightly weak → One muscle very weak / slight weakness in several → Serious weakness in several muscles |
The muscular weakness may be due to a nerve problem caused by chemical exposure and immune system changes associated with MCS.
Early warning signs of fluorosis include loss of muscle power, weakness and pain.
GBS can cause muscles to weaken and atrophy. Progressive weakening or paralysis may occur, typically beginning in the feet, hands or face. The paralysis characteristically involves more than one limb, most commonly the legs. The paralysis is progressive and usually ascending, spreading to the rest of the limb, and from there may spread to the legs, arms and the rest of the body. The arms may feel weak, the patient no longer being able to lift heavy objects.
Magnesium overload can depress the central nervous system, causing muscle weakness, lethargy, sleepiness, hyperexcitability, mental status changes, nausea, appetite loss, extremely low blood pressure, and irregular heartbeat.
Gait disorders varying from an inability to walk the usual distance to an inability to walk at all are the principal problems of patients with MS.
Dystrophin is a protein required for normal muscle function. Muscular dystrophy leads to a lower concentration of dystrophin in certain muscles, thus causing weakness.
Although Myasthenia Gravis (MG) can affect any of the voluntary muscles, certain muscle groups are more often affected than others. More than half of patients experience eye symptoms; 1-in-7 have face and throat muscle symptoms; MG affects the arms more often than the legs.
Symptoms of neuritis include a weakness in the muscles and a wasting away of muscle tissue. Without proper nerve stimulation the muscles are no longer healthy and cannot be effective.
Muscle weakness is the most common symptom of Polymyositis and Dermatomyositis (PM/DM), which are chronic inflammatory diseases of the muscle.
True muscle weakness in the presence of other related symptoms is suggestive of West Nile virus infection.