Final answer:
The term 'myopathy' refers to a disease of the muscles, and muscular dystrophy is a genetic neuromuscular disorder exemplifying a myopathy.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the medical term myopathy, the suffix -pathy indeed means disease or disorder. The prefix 'myo-' refers to muscle, indicating that the term pertains to a disease of the muscles. Myopathies are a group of disorders where the primary symptom is muscle weakness due to dysfunction of muscle fiber.
Muscular dystrophy is an example of a myopathy, which is a genetic neuromuscular disorder caused by defective proteins in muscle cells, leading to progressive skeletal muscle weakness, muscle cell death, and tissue degradation.
Other diseases of the muscle, broadly referred to as neuromuscular diseases, can result in symptoms such as weakness, spasticity, myoclonus, and myalgia. Diagnostic procedures such as measuring creatine kinase levels, electromyography, muscle biopsy, and genetic testing are used to diagnose muscular disorders, including myopathies and muscular dystrophies.