Marfan Syndrome

Marfan Syndrome is a genetic disease that affects the body's cconnective tissue.
Symptoms of Marfan Syndrome include:

Heart and Blood Vessels (Cardiovascular system):
*Enlarged or bulging aorta, the main blood vessel that carries blood from the heart (aortic dilation or aneurysm)
Separation of the layers of the aorta that can cause it to tear (aortic dissection)
“Floppy” mitral valve (mitral valve prolapse – MVP)
*= lethal
Bones and Joints (Skeletal system) :
Long arms and legs
Tall and thin body type
Curvature of the spine (scoliosis or kyphosis)
Chest sinks in (pectus excavatum) or sticks out/pigeon breast (pectus carinatum)
Long, thin fingers
Flexible joints
Flat feet
Teeth that are too crowded

Eyes (Ocular system):
Severe nearsightedness (myopia)
Dislocated lens of the eye
Detached retina
Early glaucoma
Early cataracts

Other Body Systems:
Stretch marks on the skin, not explained by pregnancy or weight gain
Sudden collapse of the lung (spontaneous pneumothorax)
Swelling of the sac around the spinal column (dural ectasia). This is found with CT or MRI scans of the back

The fibrillin-1 gene, on chronosome 15, is the gene that carries Marfan Syndrome.
The disorder is autosomal dominant, which means that it is not sex-linked and is a dominant allele. This disorder is genetically inherited only 75% of the time. In the other 25% of cases, it appears as the result of mutation.

This disorder can appear at any time during life.

This disorder occurs in offspring 50% of the time. The environment and other genese do not affect the expression of the disorder.

Diagnosis:

Marfan Syndrome can only be diagnosed if a doctor see symptoms in three or more body symptoms. While genetic tests may help confirm a diagnosis, they cannot diagnose the disorder without other data.

The disorder cannot be detected before birth with ceartainty. It may, however, be detected at birth.

The only way parents can check to see if they are carriers is to get an examination to see if they have three or more symptoms of the disdorder.

The only way to lessen the severity of this disease is to refrain from strenuous activities, as they may damage the aorta, an important heart muscle, which is already weakened by this disorder.

Quiz:

1. Is Marfan Syndrome dominant or recessive?

2. What are thre body systems that Marfan Syndrome affects?

3. What is the most lethal symptom of Marfan Syndrome?

4. Is Marfan Syndrome always inherited?

5. What tissue does Marfan Syndrome affect?

http://www.marfan.org/ : A foundation that supports Marfan Syndrome.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3856773959164642710 : video uplink

Bibliography:
http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/genetics/autosom.html

http://www.marfan.org/marfan

My Review

Personally, I think I deserve an A on my blogs. I am currently up to date, and my spelling and grammar is good. Sadly, however, Mr. Dunn decides what grade I get, and not me. :(

Favorite Earth Science Topics

Geology: My favorite geology topic was the Mesozoic Era. This is because that was when the dinosaurs were around and I am fascinated by dinosaurs.

Oceanography: My favorite oceanography topic was the submersibles because they allow us to see and view ocean animals.

Meteorology: My favorite meteorology topic was the air masses. This is because I learned to read the weatherman's map for the first time.

Astrology: My favorite astrology topic was the String Theory. This is because it is very intersting to me and it's something I've never heard of before.

H-R Diagram

1. The main sequence is a group of stars that run from the upper left corner to the lower right corner and are where most stars are located.

2. 90% of all stars are main sequence stars.

3. The Sun is a main sequence star.

4. Next, the Sun will use hydrogen in the layers sorrounding the core and become a red giant. This will happen in 5 billion years.

5. On the picture above, the x-axis is surface temperature and the y-axis is absolute magnitude. The diagonal line in the middle are the main-sequence stars.

Star Search

1. 10 stars are: Sun, Polaris, Vega, Sirius, Alpha Centauri, Mira, Algol, Castor, Regulus, Procyon.

2. Vega

3. class A white main sequence dwarf star

4. Yes, there's one planet 12 times larger than Jupiter, one the size of Neptune, and possibly some terrestrial type planets.

5. Vega is in the Milky Way, in the Lyra constellation.

6. Vega is 25.3 light years away from Earth.

Chapter 23 Webquest!!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddtbmbr7_1gcw54zhj&hl=en

Astronomy Topics

Titan: Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons and is the second largest moon in the Milky Way. It is even larger than Merury. It and Triton are the only moons to have substantial atmospheres. It's air pressure is 1.5 times greater than that of Earth in the atmosphere.

Big Bang Theory: The Big Bang Theory states that at first, the universe was a small, ompact, and dense ball. Then, the ball exploded 13.7 billion years ago. All the matter it contained scattered out. This matter eventually cooled and became galaxies. The matter is continuing to expand at a ever faster speed.

SETI: The Search for Extraterristerial Intelligence (SETI) is very interesting to some people. Their goal is to find life on other planets. This life is commonly called aliens. Many people have also claimed to see aliens, and some think the government is trying to hide aliens.

String Theory: The String Theory states that all matter, even light, is made up of tiny strings. These strings are the smallest particles ever. A string can do something called oscillate, which is when it changes the way it looks. If it oscillates one way, we see a electron. If it oscillates another way, we see a photon.

Black Holes: Black holes form when a star ten times larger than Earth collapses. A black hole has so much gravity that not even light can escape it. We can not see a black hole. We can, however, find a black hole if we see a type of radiation coming from an unknown source.