Life expectancy is greatly shortened in patients presenting with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), the most common neuromuscular disease. A reliable prediction of survival in patients with DM1 is critically important to plan personalized health supervision. In this cohort study involving 1296 adults with DM1, the authors aimed to develop a model to predict the 10-year survival of patients presenting with DM1 based on a set of common patient characteristics. These characteristics included age, diabetes, need for support when walking, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, first-degree atrioventricular block, bundle-branch block, and lung vital capacity. The authors concluded that the DM1 prognostic score is associated with long-term survival.
