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From: "Ray & Bettie Dall" <>
Subject: Lincoln and Marfan's Syndrome #1
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 05:39:33 -0800


Cindy .
Several years ago a daughter of my cousin died. in NC. Her parents sent me
an article
written about the Lincoln Syndrome, which their daughter had.The article
was in News Week
8 Oct. 1884.A lengthy article so I will go in part.

Abaham Lincoln's distinctive long narrow face, deep-set eyes, sunken chest
and lanky
limbs were irresistable to the political cartoonists of his era, who
easily transformed
them into comical caricatures. But what may have caused Lincoln's unusual
appearance is np laughing matter. Many physicians today believe he was
victim of
marfan syndrome, an inherited disorder of connective tissue that affects
about 20,000
Americans---making it as common as hemophilia and more prevalent than
cystic
fibrosis.

Until just a few years ago, a diognoises of Marfan syndrome usually meant
early
death; many victims died in their 20's and 30's. But recently meeting of
Marfan
reserchers, physicans from John's Hopkins University School of Medicine
reported
evidence that early diagnosis and aggressive treatment with drugs and
surgery can
improve and estend the length of many Marfan patients' lives.

Because connective tissue supports structor and organs through the
body,
Marfan syndrome affects biological systems, with widely varing severity.
Skeletal abnormalities--including loose-jointedness and elongated limbs---
are common, as are eye problems. The most life-threatening impack of Marfan

syndrome, is on the cardiovascular system. The desease may damage the
aoritace valve, for example, allowing blood to leak back into the heart.
But
what kills many victims is an aneurysm, a dangerous ballooning out of
weakened
arotic wall produced by force of the heart's pumping action. An aneurysm
can
rupture without warning, often as a result of physical stress such as
athlelic
activity or lifting heavy objects; the patient usually dies within a few
hours.

Until the mid -1970's doctors seldom operated on Marfan's patients
until
asortic damage was extensive. But now physicians at John Hophins and else-
where believe surgery should be performed as soon as the aorta has enlarged
to a diameter of six centimeters---twice the normal size." We really think
these
folks, if they do not have surgery, are disasters waiting to happen,"
saudDr. Reed
Pyeritz, director of the Medical-geneyocs clinic at John Hopkins.

----------Part 2 will be SUCCESS
>

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