Disease with visible skeletal and circulatory systems?
What is the name of the disease in which the skeletal and circulatory systems of the individual are clearly visible? I ask this because I know someone who appears to be very anorexic, having very little (or no) body fat, and a slightly arched back. I have heard something about not being able to digest glucose or something, but this has not been verified and may not be legitimate.
Tagged with: body fat • circulatory systems • glucose
Filed under: Circulatory disease
There is such a thing as glucose/galactose malabsorption, which is cause by a mutation in the transporter that lets cells uptake molecules of glucose and galactose (monosaccharides). That’s not quite an inability to "digest" glucose (glucose is not really digested in any medical sense of the word), but if someone had it it would probably be very difficult for them to get enough nutrition and I would imagine they would be very thin. I’ve never seen anyone with it, though, because it’s incredibly rare. Anyway, anyone who is very thin will have very visible veins and little body fat, but there are thousands of reasons for that.
Like R. Gaspari, I can’t tell what disorder you have in mind without more information.
There’s a bunch of diseases that have skeletal and circulatory manifestations, so without the benefit of further information, I’m not sure of the specific pathology you’re referring to.
In Turner Syndrome (45 XO female), for one example, there is often aortic coarctation, osteoporosis, short stature, delay in skeletal maturation, etc. also associated with rib notching which can be seen radiographically and is essentially pathognomonic for a coarct.