“Wow that kid is a giant! Is he really that young?” Many people around the world eventually see a child today and think that exact phrase. Many think that children are just getting more mature faster, but there is a disease that could be contributing to children’s big physical size present in today’s society. The name of the disease is gigantism. Gigantism is a rare condition that causes the abnormal increasing in children’s physical size. The increasing in size is caused when the child’s body produces more growth hormone than the body actually needs. Just like any other disease, gigantism has signs and symptoms that could help doctors diagnose it. The most common sign that a child has gigantism is their physical size. According to UCLA health,
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The pea-sized pituitary gland is located at the base of your brain (“Gigantism”). It produces all of the body’s hormones, including somatotropin, the body’s main growth hormone. When a tumor develops on the gland, it starts to produce more growth hormone than the body needs. This causes the child to be larger than other children his/her age. Gigantism can also be caused by tumors in the pancreas and lungs, which also spark the overproduction of growth hormone. So if you have gigantism, how are doctors going to notice that a child’s body is overproducing growth hormone other than the child’s …show more content…
Chapman, MBBS, PhD explains that doctors run many different tests on a child in order to diagnose gigantism. The most commonly used method is looking for an elevated IGF-1 level. Doctors will take blood from the child to examine. They look for IGF-1, a protein in the blood that is involved in mediating growth development. If the doctors see that there is too much IGF-1 in the child’s blood and the child is big in size, they would be able to diagnose the child with gigantism. Another method doctors use to diagnose gigantism is an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging. The doctor will do an MRI scan on the child suspected to have gigantism. After the scan is done, the doctor will be able to locate the pituitary gland and inspect it (Chapman). If there is a tumor on the gland, the child most likely has gigantism. The doctor would then start explaining the treatments that can be done to get the tumor removed or slow down the production of growth hormone. So how would you treat
The pea-sized pituitary gland is located at the base of your brain (“Gigantism”). It produces all of the body’s hormones, including somatotropin, the body’s main growth hormone. When a tumor develops on the gland, it starts to produce more growth hormone than the body needs. This causes the child to be larger than other children his/her age. Gigantism can also be caused by tumors in the pancreas and lungs, which also spark the overproduction of growth hormone. So if you have gigantism, how are doctors going to notice that a child’s body is overproducing growth hormone other than the child’s …show more content…
Chapman, MBBS, PhD explains that doctors run many different tests on a child in order to diagnose gigantism. The most commonly used method is looking for an elevated IGF-1 level. Doctors will take blood from the child to examine. They look for IGF-1, a protein in the blood that is involved in mediating growth development. If the doctors see that there is too much IGF-1 in the child’s blood and the child is big in size, they would be able to diagnose the child with gigantism. Another method doctors use to diagnose gigantism is an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging. The doctor will do an MRI scan on the child suspected to have gigantism. After the scan is done, the doctor will be able to locate the pituitary gland and inspect it (Chapman). If there is a tumor on the gland, the child most likely has gigantism. The doctor would then start explaining the treatments that can be done to get the tumor removed or slow down the production of growth hormone. So how would you treat