Down Syndrome Symptoms
Down syndrome is a common birth defect in the population. There are some characteristics of Down syndrome. Sometimes, the symptoms can be easily noticed according to the physical appearance of the baby. Yet, sometimes we failed to find out the symptoms until the child grow up.
As we all know, the most common symptom of Down syndrome patients is mental retardation. However, the severity of the mental retardation is different for every patient. Usually, the Down syndrome patients will have some malformations. Many studies show that there are more than 50 types of characteristics related to this usual abnormality. Although not all the patients will have the same symptoms, we can see some recurring symptoms too.
Most Common Features of Down Syndrome
- Flattened Face
- Small head
- Length of fingers is short
- Hypogenitalism of hypergonadism
- Protruding tongue
- Poor development
- Irregularly ear shape
- Upwards slanting eyes
- Thyroid dysfunction
- Mental retardation
The symptoms that I have written above are the most common features of Down syndrome that might be seen on the patients. However, we might see other characteristics on the children too. For example, most of the patients with this genetic abnormality are quite emotional. They can easily lose their temper. Most of these symptoms may not show during the infant time. It will start to become obvious when the baby grows.
Generally, the patient looks almost alike to each other. We can simply know the Down syndrome patient via their physical outlook. The confident clinical diagnosis is hard during the early time after birth. For the female patients, the menarche usually occurs at normal time. Most of the female patients are fertile. The pregnancy is possible. But, the male patients usually associated with hypogenitalism. Therefore, they are infertile commonly.
This genetic disorder is caused by the abnormality of genes. They are born with an extra chromosome 21. Normally, we have only a pair of chromosome 21. The extra chromosome 21 often causes those medical problems. The Trisomy 21 patient will easy to develop cancer cells than others. The abnormality is caused by the errors occurred during the cell division. The wrong mechanisms occur during the sperm or egg cell development. The errors occur are closely related to the age of the parents. Women who older than 35 years old will tend to produce the abnormal egg cells.
In conclusion, the patients should get the good therapies to reduce the severity of the symptoms. It is recommended to seek for a doctor’s advice to get the most suitable treatments to the patients.
Are you looking for more information about Down Syndrome? Check out my Down syndrome in Cytogenetics Cancer Research blog.