Main Entry: Ku·gel·berg–Wel·an·der disease

Pronunciation: \ˈkü-gəl-ˌbərg-ˈvel-ən-dər-\

Function: noun

: muscular weakness and atrophy that is caused by degeneration of motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord, is usually inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, and that becomes symptomatic during childhood or adolescence typically progressing slowly during adulthood—compare werdnig-hoffmann disease

Kugelberg, Eric Klas Henrik (1913–1983), and Welander, Lisa (1909–2001), Swedish neurologists. Kugelberg and Welander described the form of muscular atrophy that bears their names in 1956. The disease had been described earlier, in 1942, by another Swedish neurologist, Karl Gunnar Vilhelm Wohlfart (1910–1961).