Children with muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular conditions receive care from our expert, multidisciplinary team in the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.

What to Expect

We provide evaluation and treatment planning for patients who have an existing muscular dystrophy or neuromuscular condition diagnosis, as well as those who do not yet have a diagnosis and are referred to us with symptoms such as weakness, low muscle tone, difficulties walking, and delay in or loss of developmental skills.

The multidisciplinary clinic includes a nurse coordinator who works with patient families to coordinate care, specialists in pediatric rehabilitation medicine, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, endocrinology, genetics, physical therapy, occupational therapy and social work.

Our specialists may recommend a range of testing depending on your child’s individual condition and needs. Our neurologists provide electromyography and nerve conduction studies to assess whether symptoms are caused by the muscles or nerves. Our cardiologists provide echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart, or EKG, which assesses the electrical signal from the heart. Our pulmonologists provide pulmonary function testing to assess how well the lungs are working and sleep studies.

Why Choose Johns Hopkins All Children’s

During your child’s appointment with our clinic, they will be seen by each specialist on their care team, so your child can receive the care they need during the same visit.

We also provide referrals to other specialists at Johns Hopkins All Children’s as needed, such as nutrition, gastroenterology, speech therapy and genetics.

The clinic is a Muscular Dystrophy Association Certified clinic.

Conditions We Treat

We treat patients with a variety of neuromuscular conditions that cause weakness and decreased mobility, including: 

• Amyloid neuropathy
• Channelopathies (Channel disorders)
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease
• Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP)
• Congenital myasthenic syndromes
• Congenital myopathies
• Idiopathic polyneuropathy
• Muscular dystrophy
  • Becker muscular dystrophy
  • Congenital muscular dystrophy
  • Duchenne muscular dystrophy
  • Facioscapulohumeral (FSH) dystrophy
  • Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy
  • Myotonia congenita
  • Myotonic dystrophy
• Myasthenia gravis/neuromuscular junction disorders
• Myositis/dermatomyositis
• Paraneoplastic neuropathy
• Peripheral neuropathy (inherited, chemotherapy-induced)
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)