Noonan's Syndrome

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Do you have it? Do you have it? History – “Jacqueline Noonan was practicing as a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Iowa when she noticed that children often had a characteristic physical appearance with short stature, webbed neck, wide spaced eyes, and low-set ears. It was found in 1962 .Both boys and girls were affected. Even though these characteristics were sometimes seen running in families, chromosomes appeared grossly normal. Dr John Opitz, a former student of Dr. Noonan, first began to call the condition "Noonan Syndrome" when he saw children who looked like those whom Dr. Noonan had described. Dr. Noonan later produced a paper entitled "Hypertelorism with Turner Phenotype", and in 1971 at the Symposium of Cardiovascular defects, the name 'Noonan Syndrome' became officially recognized. Noonan Syndrome Is a very common disease that has been tested a found out that 1 in 1,000 to 2,500 people have this disease.” Symptoms - * Delayed puberty * Down-slanting or wide-set eyes * Hearing loss (varies) * Low-set or abnormally shaped ears * Mild mental retardation (only in about 25% of cases) * Sagging eyelids (ptosis) * Short stature * Small penis * Undescended testicles * Unusual chest shape (usually a sunken chest called pectus excavatum) * Webbed and short-appearing neck Treatment - There is no specific treatment. Your doctor will suggest treatment to relieve or manage symptoms. Growth hormone has been used successfully to treat short stature in some persons with Noonan syndrome. Causes - Noonan syndrome is linked to defects in several genes. Problems with the genes cause certain proteins involved in growth and development to become overactive. Noonan syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition. This means only one parent has to pass down the faulty gene for the baby to have the syndrome. However, some

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