[1] It is commonly applied to enlargement of a muscle due to infiltration of fat or connective tissue,[2] famously in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

[2] Causes of pseudohypertrophy include muscle diseases: dystrophinopathies, limb-girdle muscular dystrophies, metabolic myopathy, Dystrophic myotonias, Non-dystrophic myotonias, endocrine disorders, parasitic muscle conditions, amyloid and sarcoid myopathy, and granulomatous myositis.

[2] Neurological causes include radiculopathy, poliomyelitis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, spinal muscular atrophy.

[9][10] Pseudohypertrophy can be broken up into the following roots, suffixes, and prefixes: The term was used by Duchenne de Boulogne in his description of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in one of his works "paralysie musculaire pseudo-hypertrophique.

"[11] As well as being known as 'false enlargement,' when the muscle has been infiltrated by fat tissue, historically it has also been called muscular steatosis, pseudohypertrophic atrophy, lipomatous pseudohypertrophy, interstitial lipomatosis, lipomatous muscular dystrophy, or atrophia lipomatosa.