Brown adipose tissue in Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy.

Both granular and multiocular periadrenal brown adipose tissue (BAT) was present in 16 patients with Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy (PMD). In 12 cases (75%), diffusely distributed periadrenal BAT was observed. The common cause of death was respiratory failure, and blood gas level showed marked hypoxia. Scattered myocardial fibrosis was seen in all cases of PMD. We suspected that chronic hypoxia and cardiac fibrosis might be largely responsible for BAT transformation in patients with PMD.