Patient's question:
At the age of 18, the teenager, who is less than 1.6 meters tall, went to the hospital for a thorough examination and was diagnosed with dwarfism. What causes dwarfism and how is it treated?Doctor's answer:
Dwarfism is divided into two types: congenital dwarfism and acquired dwarfism. Congenital dwarfism is often caused by congenital developmental disorders or hereditary diseases, which may be a recessive familial chromosomal disease. Acquired dwarfism can be secondary to hypothalamic-pituitary disorders. Patients diagnosed with GHD may need to decide whether to undergo a cranial CT or MRI scan for a thorough examination to understand whether there is organic inflammation in the hypothalamic-pituitary region, which is particularly important for tumors. Most cases of dwarfism can be inherited across generations because the likelihood of acquired causes is relatively lower, so the possibility of inheritance across generations still exists.