Scanning Electron Microscopy Studies in Muscular Dystrophy

Scanning electron microscopy of unmanipulated erythrocytes from patients with myotonic dystrophy or Duchenne dystrophy and patients who were Duchenne carriers showed a large increase in the number of stomatocytes over the number in normal controls. No specific morphologic changes that would differentiate any of the dystrophic patients from one another were seen. Adverse conditions such as washing before fixation or extreme pH produced a greater change in erythrocytes from these patients than in those from normal controls.