Progeria
Early aging disease in children
What is it?
What body systems does it effect?
- Skeletal System
- Muscular System
- Cardiovascular System
How do the body systems work with and without this disease?
The skeleton(maintains the body’s shape) becomes fragile as the body ages, affecting the Skeletal System.
Affects the Cardiovascular System(circulates blood around the body) and causes heart failure and/or stroke.
Affects the Muscular System(helps the body move) as the body ages quickly.
Watch this video about Progeria
Is there a certain population affected?
Not enough cases to find a certain population affected
1 in every 4-8 million people have Progeria
- 126 known cases in the world
Onset-How does this condition arise?
You are born with Progeria.
It is caused by a mutated gene.
It is not hereditary
Diagnosis- How is this condition diagnosed? How does a doctor determine that an individual has this condition?
Diagnosed usually 6 months after birth.
Early aging displayed about 18-24 months after birth.
The doctor can diagnose Progeria by checking for bald spots on the patient.
Doctor can perform a blood test to come up with the diagnosis.
Sam Berns, 1996-2014. He was only 17
Signs and Symptoms
Signs include:
Growth failure
Joint stiffness
Cardiovascular disease
Stroke
Treatment for this disease/condition
There is no cure for Progeria.
There are certain drugs that help extend the life of children with Progeria.
The drug is a daily injection and can extend the life of a patient by about 1.6 years.
Prognosis: What is the morbidity-mortality or life expectancy for someone with this condition?
The untreated life expectancy is 13-14 years
On more than 1 case, patients have lived to around 18 years (16-18) but they were treated.
Connections- Do you know someone with this condition or disease? If not, did your research mention someone famous with this condition? Why did you select the condition?
Considering there are only 126 known cases of this disease, I do not know anyone with Progeria. My research did not mention anyone famous with this disease, mostly because the patients don’t live long enough to become famous. I chose to do my research project on Progeria because I read about it in a book once and thought pretty deeply about it, so when I heard about the health project, I chose to dig deeper and learn more about Progeria.