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Health and Medicine - What Is Progeria?

What is progeria?

Progeria is premature old age. There are two distinct forms of the condition, both of which are extremely rare. In Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome, rapid aging starts around age 4. By age 10 or 12, the affected child has all the external features of old age, including gray hair, baldness, and loss of fat. This results in thin limbs and sagging skin on the trunk and face. There are also internal degenerative changes, such as arteriosclerosis (fatty deposits lining the artery walls). Death due to Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome usually occurs at puberty.

Werner's syndrome, or adult progeria, begins in early adult life and follows the same rapid progression as the juvenile form. The cause of progeria is unknown.

Sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, pp. 822-23; Smith, Doris C , Physicians' Guide to Rare Diseases, pp. 73-74.

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