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Diagnosis Due to a lack of specific laboratory tests at this current time, a diagnosis of progeria must be made on the physical appearance of the child. Diagnosis are usually made in the 1st or 2nd year of the child’s life when the characteristic skin changes and weight gain failure become apparent. Some of the things that are looked for upon thought of diagnosis are: 1) skin changes similar to that seen in scleroderma (the connective tissue becomes tough and hardened) 2)insulin resistant diabetes (diabetes that does not respond readily to insulin injections) 3)There may be early atherosclerosis of blood vessels leading to abnormal stress tests of the heart At present there are no specific tests that could be performed to diagnose this condition. There is only the physical examination diagnosis made based on the symptoms and signs that are observed during the examination. Along with the diagnosis comes the prognosis, and unfortunately that is associated with an extremely short lifespan. This is usually caused by complications with the heart, stroke, myocardial infarction. |
