Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy is a syndrome with five salient features: 
early and unusual contractures; humeroperoneal muscle wasting; the slow 
progression of weakness, beginning in childhood; cardiac conduction defects; and 
X-linked inheritance. We present two cases and detail other reports with a 
similar constellation of findings with apparent autosomal dominant inheritance. 
We postulate separate genetic disorders with similar phenotypic expression.