Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a group of inherited disorders affecting the peripheral nerves that carry motor and sensory signals to and from the limbs, causing progressive muscle weakness and wasting that usually begins in the feet and lower legs, along with numbness and foot deformities such as high arches. It is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders and can be caused by mutations in many different genes affecting either the insulating myelin sheath or the nerve fiber itself. The disease is named for French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, his student Pierre Marie, and British physician Howard Henry Tooth, who independently described it in 1886.