What's in the Literature?

The neuromuscular literature over the past 3 months has been diverse, including useful information on the epidemiology of several disorders. Our understanding of the genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis continues to grow, and in the process, it makes the distinction between familial and sporadic forms of the disorder increasingly murky. Some interesting articles about peripheral neuropathy provide insight into relationships with diabetes and with Parkinson disease and summarize the state of knowledge of the increasingly complex topic of hereditary neuropathies in children. Epidemiology and electrodiagnosis of lateral femoral cutaneous neuropathy is nicely discussed in 2 articles. Several muscle diseases, including Pompe disease, sporadic inclusion body myositis, and the congenital myopathies, receive attention in articles that provide very useful information for the clinician, and there is a treatment-oriented article on dystrophinopathies, which makes for excellent reading. There are also discussions of several uncommon disorders, including a mitochondrial myopathy, periodic paralysis, and congenital myasthenic syndromes, which are helpful in providing information to clinicians who may see such disorders only infrequently.