Tom Baker, 14, is the second child of Harold and JoAnn Baker of Dover, Ohio. When he was a small boy, the family noticed that he walked "funny," certainly not like their first child, Jessica, now 18, or their youngest, Lisa, 11.

Still, doctors weren't terribly concerned until the Bakers took Tom for his kindergarten physical. "The doctor noticed that he exhibited the Gowers' sign," JoAnn recalls, referring to the way children with leg muscle weakness use their arms to brace themselves when getting up from the floor.

Part 1 of this series(Quest, Vol. 6, No. 2) addressed cardiomyopathy, the degeneration of heart muscle that often occurs in many neuromuscular diseases.

Cardiac problems are common in several neuromuscular disorders. They can be quite serious, particularly in Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD and BMD). In this, the first of a two-part series, we'll explore cardiomyopathy, the type of heart problem that's found most often in DMD and BMD and also occurs in some other neuromuscular conditions. (Read Part 2 of this series.)