Down syndrome is a usual birth defect in the population. There are several characteristics of Down syndrome. Oftenly, the characteristics are easy to be observed via physical outlook of the patient. Yet, sometimes we cannot noticed the symptoms until the child grow up.

As we all know, the most common symptom of Down syndrome patients is mental retardation. However, the level of serious of the mental retardation is different for every patient. Usually, the Down syndrome patients will show up some malformations. Many studies show that there are more than 50 types of characteristics related to this common genetic disorder. Although not all the patients will have the same symptoms, we can see some recurring symptoms too.

Most Common Down Syndrome Features

  • Development deficiency
  • Flattened facial features
  • Irregularly ear shape
  • Small head
  • Mental retardation
  • Protruding tongue
  • Upwards slanting eyes
  • Length of fingers is short
  • Hypogenitalism of hypergonadism
  • Thyroid dysfunction

The characteristics that I have written above are the most common features of Down syndrome that might be seen on the babies. However, we might see other characteristics on the babies too. For example, most of the patients with this genetic disorder are quite emotional. They can easily angry. Most of these characteristics may not show during the infant time. It will start to become obvious when the baby grows.

Generally, the patient looks almost alike to each other. We can simply recognize the Down syndrome patient via their physical appearance. The confident clinical diagnosis is hard during the early time after birth. For the female patients, the menarche usually occurs at normal time. Most of the female patients are fertile. The pregnancy is possible. Yet, the male patients usually associated with hypogenitalism. Therefore, they are infertile in most of the cases.
Trisomy 21 is caused by the abnormality of genes. They are born with an extra chromosome 21. Normally, we have only a pair of chromosome 21. The extra genetic information often causes those medical problems. The Trisomy 21 patient will easy to develop cancer cells than others. The abnormality is caused by the errors occurred during the cell division. The wrong mechanisms occur during the sperm or egg cell development. The errors occur are closely related to the age of the parents. Women who older than 35 years old will tend to produce the abnormal egg cells.

In conclusion, the patients should get the good treatments to reduce the severity of these features. It is recommended to seek for a doctor’s advice to get the most suitable treatments to the patients.

Are you looking for more information about Down Syndrome? Check out my Down syndrome in Cytogenetics Cancer Research blog.

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