Osteogenesis Imperfecta a.k.a. Brittle Bone Disease

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Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), also known as Brittle Bone Disease, is a heritable genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue and causes bones to break easily, normally without any discernible cause. Its name, “osteogenesis imperfecta,” literally means imperfect bone formation. There are eight forms of the disease that have been identified thus far, labeled Type I through Type VIII. Each form describes how severely the person with the disease is affected. For instance, Type I is the mildest form of the disease, while Types II, III, VII, and VIII are the most severe.
People with osteogenesis imperfecta have muscle weakness, loose joints, weak tissues, fragile skin, and bones that can easily be fractured. Mild OI can cause a person with the disease to experience only a few fractures, while someone with one of the severe or lethal forms of OI can experience hundreds of fractures during the span of their lifetime, leading to bone deformities. Sometimes fractures can even occur before birth. Adults and children diagnosed with the disorder are often short in stature, have triangular-shaped faces, and can have discoloration of the sclera of the eye. The sclera is a white tissue, but a person with OI may have a blue or grey sclera. Other symptoms include a curved spine, brittle teeth, frequent nosebleeds, breathing difficulties, and hearing loss that may begin during childhood or early adulthood.
Approximately 90% of all cases of OI have an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, meaning that someone only needs to inherit one copy of the abnormal gene from a parent in order to have the disease. These dominant forms of osteogenesis imperfecta are caused by a mutation in the COL1A1 or COL1A2 genes. These genes encompass th...

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Osteogenesis imperfecta. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/adult/bone_disorders/osteogenesis_imperfecta_85,P00123/
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