Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease
- Author: Divakara Kedlaya, MBBS; Chief Editor: Robert H Meier III, MD more...
Background
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is the most common inherited neurologic disorder. CMT is characterized by inherited neuropathies without known metabolic derangements. In 1886, Professor Jean Martin Charcot of France (1825-1893) and his student Pierre Marie (1853-1940) published the first description of distal muscle weakness and wasting beginning in the legs, calling it peroneal muscular atrophy.
Howard Henry Tooth (1856-1926) described the same disease in his Cambridge dissertation in 1886, calling the condition peroneal progressive muscular atrophy. Tooth was the first to correctly attribute the disorder's symptoms to neuropathy rather than to myelopathy, as physicians had done before him. In 1912, Hoffman identified a case of peroneal muscular atrophy with thickened nerves. This disease was referred to as Hoffman disease and later was known as Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Hoffman disease.
In 1968, CMT was subdivided into 2 types, CMT-1 and CMT-2, based on pathologic and physiologic criteria. CMT has been further subdivided, based on the genetic cause of the disease. With the advent of genetic testing, all of the different diseases that fall under the heading of CMT syndrome eventually are likely to become distinguishable.
Pathophysiology
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is actually a heterogeneous group of genetically distinct disorders with a similar clinical presentation. CMT-1 is a disorder of peripheral myelination resulting from a mutation in the peripheral myelin protein-22 (PMP-22) gene. Mutations in the gene encoding the major peripheral nervous system myelin protein, myelin protein zero (MPZ), account for 5% of patients with CMT. The mutation results in abnormal myelin that is unstable and spontaneously breaks down. This process results in demyelination, leading to uniform slowing of conduction velocity.
Slowing of conduction in motor and sensory nerves was believed to cause weakness and numbness. A study by Krajewski and colleagues suggested that neurologic dysfunction and clinical disability in CMT-1A are caused by loss or damage to large-diameter motor and sensory axons.[1] Pain and temperature sensations usually are not affected, because they are carried by unmyelinated (type C) nerve fibers.
In response to demyelination, Schwann cells proliferate and form concentric arrays of remyelination. Repeated cycles of demyelination and remyelination result in a thick layer of abnormal myelin around the peripheral axons. These changes cause what is referred to as an onion bulb appearance.
CMT-2 is primarily a neuronal (ie, axonal) disorder, not a demyelinating disorder. Type 2 results in peripheral neuropathy through direct axonal death and wallerian degeneration. CMT-3 (also known as Dejerine-Sottas disease) is characterized by infantile onset. Type 3 results in severe demyelination with delayed motor skills and is a much more severe form than type 1. Marked segmental demyelination with thinning of the myelin around the nerve is observed on histologic examination. CMT-X (X-linked CMT) and CMT-4 are also demyelinating neuropathies.
Epidemiology
Frequency
United States
The prevalence of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is 1 person per 2500 population, or about 125,000 patients in the US. CMT-1 incidence is 15 persons per 100,000 population. CMT-1A incidence is 10.5 persons per 100,000 population, or 70% of CMT-1 cases. CMT-2 incidence is 7 persons per 100,000 population. CMT-X represents at least 10-20% of persons with the CMT syndrome.
International
In Japan, the prevalence of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is reportedly 10.8 cases per 100,000 population. In Italy, the prevalence is reported to be 17.5 cases per 100,000 population, and in Spain, it is 28.2 cases per 100,000 population.
Mortality/Morbidity
Morbidity in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is mainly secondary to distal muscle weakness and foot deformities.[2, 3] In rare cases, phrenic nerve involvement of the diaphragm can cause ventilatory difficulties.
Race
No race predilection is recognized in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
Sex
There is no known sex predilection in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
Age
The age of presentation for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) varies depending on the type of CMT. Please refer to the table under Causes.
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| CMT Type | Chromosome; Inheritance Pattern | Age of Onset | Clinical Features | Average NCVs§ |
| CMT-1A (PMP-22¶ dupl.) | 17p11; AD* | First decade | Distal weakness | 15-20 m/s |
| CMT-1B (P0 -MPZ)** | 1q22; AD | First decade | Distal weakness | < 20 m/s |
| CMT-1C (non-A, non-B) | 16p13;AD | Second decade | Distal weakness | 26-42 m/s |
| CMT-1D (EGR-2)# | 10q21; AD | First decade | Distal weakness | 15-20 m/s |
| CMT-1E | 17p11; AD | First decade | Distal weakness, deafness | 15-20 m/s |
| CMT-1F | 8p21; AD | First decade | Distal weakness | 15-20 m/s |
| CMT-X (connexin-32) | Xq13; XD‡ | Second decade | Distal weakness | 25-40 m/s |
| CMT-2A | 1p36; AD | 10 y | Distal weakness | >38 m/s |
| CMT-2B | 3q; AD | Second decade | Distal weakness, sensory loss, skin ulcers | Axon loss; Normal |
| CMT-2C | 12q23-q24, AD | First decade | Vocal cord, diaphragm, and distal weakness | >50 m/s |
| CMT-2D | 7p14; AD | 16-30 y | Distal weakness, upper limb predominantly | Axon loss; N†† |
| CMT-2E | 8p21; AD | 10-30 y | Distal weakness, lower limb predominantly | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2F | 7q11-q21; AD | 15-25 y | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2G | 12q12-q13; ?AD | 9-76 y | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2H | ?; AR† | 15-25 y | Distal weakness, pyramidal features | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2I | 1q22; AD | 47-60 y | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2J | 1q22; AD | 40-50 y | Distal weakness, hearing loss | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2K | 8q13-q21; AR | < 4 y | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT-2L | 12q24; AD | 15-25 y | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT – R-Ax (Ouvrier) | AR | First decade | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| CMT – R-Ax (Moroccan) | 1q21; AR | Second decade | Distal weakness | Axon loss; N |
| Cowchock syndrome | Xq24-q26 | First decade | Distal weakness, deafness, mental retardation | Axon loss; N |
| HNPP|| (PMP-22) or tomaculous neuropathy | 17p11; AD | All ages | Episodic weakness and numbness | Conduction Blocks |
| Dejerine-Sottas-syndrome (DSS) or HMSN-3 | P0; AR PMP-22; AD 8q23; AD | 2 y | Severe weakness | < 10 m/s |
| Congenital hypomyelination (CH) | P0, EGR-2 or PMP-22 AR | Birth | Severe weakness | < 10 m/s |
| CMT-4A | 8q13; AR | Childhood | Distal weakness | Slow |
| CMT-4B (myotubularin- related protein 2) | 11q23; AR | 2-4 y | Distal and proximal weakness | Slow |
| CMT-4C | 5q23; AR | 5-15 y | Delayed walking | 14-32 m/s |
| CMT-4D (Lom) (N-myc downstream- regulated gene 1) | 8q24; AR | 1-10 y | Distal muscle wasting, foot and hand deformities | 10-20 m/s |
| CMT-4E (EGR-2) | 10q21; AR | Birth | Infant hypotonia | 9-20 m/s |
| CMT-4G | 10q23.2; AR | 8-16 years | Distal weakness | 9-20 m/s |
| CMT-4H | 12p11.21-q13.11; AR | 0-2 years | Delayed walking | 9-20 m/s |
| CMT-4F | 19q13; AR | 1-3 y | Motor delay | Absent |
| *Autosomal dominant †Autosomal recessive ‡X-linked dominant §Nerve conduction velocities ||Hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy ¶Peripheral myelin protein #Early growth response **Myelin protein zero ††Normal | ||||

