Global InformationPseudoathletic appearance information
| Pseudoathletic appearance | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Herculean appearance, Bodybuilder-like appearance |
 | |
Pseudoathletic appearance is a medical sign meaning to have the false appearance of a well-trained athlete due to pathologic causes (disease or injury) instead of true athleticism.[1][2] It is also referred to as a Herculean or bodybuilder-like appearance.[3] It may be the result of muscle inflammation (immunity-related swelling), muscle hyperplasia, muscle hypertrophy, muscle pseudohypertrophy (muscle atrophy with infiltration of fat or other tissue), or symmetrical subcutaneous (under the skin) deposits of fat or other tissue.
The mechanism resulting in this sign may stay consistent or may change, while the sign itself remains. For instance, some individuals with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy may start with true muscle hypertrophy, but later develop into pseudohypertrophy.[4]
In healthy individuals, resistance training and heavy manual labour creates muscle hypertrophy through signalling from mechanical stimulation (mechanotransduction) and from sensing available energy reserves (such as AMP through AMP-activated protein kinase); however, in the absence of a sports or vocational explanation for muscle hypertrophy, especially with accompanying muscle symptoms (such as myalgia, cramping, or exercise intolerance), then a neuromuscular disorder should be suspected.[5][6]
As muscle hypertrophy is a response to strenuous anaerobic activity, ordinary everyday activity would become strenuous in diseases that result in premature muscle fatigue (neural or metabolic), or disrupt the excitation-contraction coupling in muscle, or cause repetitive or sustained involuntary muscle contractions (fasciculations, myotonia, or spasticity).[5][6] In lipodystrophy, an abnormal deficit of subcutaneous fat accentuates the appearance of the muscles, though in some forms the muscles are quantifiably hypertrophic (possibly due to a metabolic abnormality).[7][8]
- ^ "pseudoathletic", Wiktionary, 2016-06-02, retrieved 2023-06-12
- ^ Cheng, Chun-Yu (2023-01-11). "Pseudo-athletic appearance from excess alcohol use". BMJ. 380: e072885. doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-072885. ISSN 1756-1833. S2CID 255570540.
- ^ "Myotonia Congenita - Symptoms, Causes, Treatment | NORD". rarediseases.org. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
- ^ Kornegay, Joe N.; Childers, Martin K.; Bogan, Daniel J.; Bogan, Janet R.; Nghiem, Peter; Wang, Jiahui; Fan, Zheng; Howard, James F.; Schatzberg, Scott J.; Dow, Jennifer L.; Grange, Robert W.; Styner, Martin A.; Hoffman, Eric P.; Wagner, Kathryn R. (February 2012). "The Paradox of Muscle Hypertrophy in Muscular Dystrophy". Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America. 23 (1): 149–xii. doi:10.1016/j.pmr.2011.11.014. ISSN 1047-9651. PMC 5951392. PMID 22239881.
- ^ a b Walters, Jon (October 2017). "Muscle hypertrophy and pseudohypertrophy". Practical Neurology. 17 (5): 369–379. doi:10.1136/practneurol-2017-001695. ISSN 1474-7766. PMID 28778933.
- ^ a b Nadaj-Pakleza, Aleksandra (2022-07-01). "Muscle hypertrophy: indicative of good health or disease? / Hypertrophie musculaire: signe de bonne santé ou de maladie ?". Les Cahiers de Myologie (in French and English) (25): 10–15. doi:10.1051/myolog/202225004. ISSN 2108-2219.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:36was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:37was invoked but never defined (see the help page).