Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy is a degenerative myopathy characterized by weakness and atrophy of muscle without involvement of the nervous system. Flexion deformities of the elbows dating from early childhood, mild pectus excavatum, signs of cardiac involvement and absence of muscle pseudohypertrophy, involvement of the forearm muscles, and mental retardation distinguish the Emery-Dreifuss form (EDMD1) from the Becker form. Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy-5 (EDMD5) is caused by heterozygous mutation in the SYNE2 gene