Considerable advances in the understanding of congenital muscular dystrophy made during the past year may allow a new clinical classification of this disease. In particular, (1) evidence has accumulated to suggest that a laminin alpha2-chain (alpha2 subunit of laminin-2 or merosin) deficiency causes a type of congenital muscular dystrophy, and (2) it has been postulated that Fukuyama-type congenital muscular dystrophy and Walker-Warburg syndrome (but not Finnish muscle-eye-brain disease) are genetically identical diseases.