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McCune Albright Syndrome Fibrous Dysplasia Introduction
INTRODUCTION /McCune-Albright Syndrome In the years since McCune-Albright Syndrome was first identified, we have studied many additional patients, and have learned that the condition has a broad spectrum of severity. Sometimes, children are diagnosed in early infancy with obvious bone disease and markedly increased endocrine secretions from several glands; a very few of these severely McCune-Albright Syndrome affected children have died. At the opposite end of the spectrum, many children with McCune-Albright Syndrome are entirely healthy and have a normal life expectancy. They have little or no outward evidence of bone or endocrine involvement, may enter puberty close to normal age, and have no unusual skin pigment at all. Because of this marked variability among some patients, the various components of this complicated syndrome are treated separately in the following sections. MAGIC is parents of affected children and some groups for affected adults. If you would like to talk with parents or affected adults-
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McCune-Albright Syndrome is a very rare condition which was named for the two physicians who first described it over 50 years ago. They reported a group of children, most of them girls, with an unusual pattern of associated abnormalities: bone disease, with fractures, asymmetry and deformity of the legs, arms and skull; endocrine disease, including early puberty with menstrual bleeding, development of breasts and pubic hair and an increased rate of growth; and skin changes, with areas of increased pigment distributed in an asymmetric and irregular pattern. Today, we use the term "McCune-Albright Syndrome" to describe patients who have bone, endocrine, and skin abnormalities. Patients may have only one characteristic, two characteristics or all characteristics.
