Monday, December 12, 2011

Genetic Disorder: Cri du chat


Hello, it's time for Disorder diseasification with Riaz! Today's messed up disorder: Cri du chat syndrome. French for "cry of the cat", Cri du chat syndrome is a disorder where an infant's cry is the sound of a meowing cat. Mostly caused by an abnormal larynx, it is mostly a factor of a broken or deletion of a chromosome when the embryo is in development. It is mostly not genetically inherited, because the break of a chromosome is autosomal. It appears 1 in every 50,000, life expectancy is also normal. Symptoms are as followed: low set ears, low birthweight, small jaw, small head, bad language skills, and mental retardation. It is hard to diagnose this disorder, because after age 2, the cry disappears. One could test for this while the baby is in the womb, or the child can qualify for language improvement classes. This is a picture of a person with cri du chat syndrome. Take a look, if you dare!

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