The clinical manifestations of LAMA2 muscular dystrophy (LAMA2-MD) comprise a continuous spectrum ranging from severe congenital muscular dystrophy type 1A (MDC1A) to milder late-onset LAMA2-MD. MDC1A is typically characterized by neonatal profound hypotonia, poor spontaneous movements, and respiratory failure. Failure to thrive, gastroesophageal reflux, aspiration, and recurrent chest infections necessitating frequent hospitalizations are common. As disease progresses, facial muscle weakness, temporomandibular joint contractures, and macroglossia may further impair feeding and can affect speech. In late-onset LAMA2-MD onset of manifestations range from early childhood to adulthood. Affected individuals may show muscle hypertrophy and develop a rigid spine syndrome with joint contractures, usually most prominent in the elbows. Progressive respiratory insufficiency, scoliosis, and cardiomyopathy can occur.

Autosomal dominant adult-onset distal myopathy-6 (MPD6) is a muscle disorder characterized by slowly progressive distal muscle weakness, primarily affecting the lower limbs and resulting in gait difficulties. Some patients develop involvement of proximal and upper limb muscles (summary by Savarese et al., 2019)

Congenital myopathy-8 (CMYP8) is an autosomal dominant disorder of the skeletal muscle characterized by hypotonia and delayed motor development apparent from infancy or childhood, resulting in difficulties walking or loss of ambulation within the first few decades. Affected individuals show respiratory insufficiency, high-arched palate, and scoliosis; external ophthalmoplegia may also be present. Skeletal muscle biopsy shows cores and myofibrillar disorganization (Lornage et al., 2019). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of congenital myopathy, see CMYP1A (117000).

Distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles (DMRV) is an autosomal dominant myopathic disorder characterized by adult onset of muscle weakness affecting the distal upper and lower limbs, which may result in walking difficulties, as well as proximal weakness of the shoulder girdle muscles. Muscle biopsy shows rimmed vacuoles (summary by Bucelli et al., 2015).

Oculopharyngodistal myopathy-3 (OPDM3) is a neuromyodegenerative disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness with ocular, facial, pharyngeal, and distal limb involvement, resulting in dysarthria and gait difficulties. The onset of the disorder is usually in adulthood, although childhood onset has rarely been reported. Additional features include hyporeflexia, proximal muscle weakness, neck muscle weakness, dysarthria, dysphagia, and ptosis. Some patients may develop pigmentary retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, or hearing loss. Cognition is usually not affected, but there may be deficits or psychiatric manifestations. Brain imaging tends to show a leukoencephalopathy, often with a characteristic linear signal along the corticomedullary junction on brain imaging. Skin and muscle biopsy show intranuclear inclusions and rimmed vacuoles. Many of the clinical features are reminiscent of NIID, suggesting that these disorders likely fall within a broad phenotypic spectrum of diseases with neuromyodegenerative features associated with abnormal repeat expansions in this gene (summary by Ogasawara et al., 2020 and Yu et al., 2021). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of OPDM, see OPDM1 (164310).