Acute health events in adult patients with genetic disorders: The Marshfield Epidemiologic Study Area
marfan chromosome 15 :: Article Creator Gene Causing Marfan Syndrome Discovered Hopkins Scientists Help Find Cause Of Inherited Disorder. - Baltimore Sun Discovery of the Marfan syndrome gene, whose existence was predicted 35 years ago by Dr. Victor A. McKusick, a Johns Hopkins cardiologist, is reported in today's issue of Nature, a British journal. Scientists from Johns Hopkins and the Portland (Ore.) Shriners Hospital have proved that the gene responsible for making a connective tissue protein causes the syndrome, a potentially fatal, inherited disorder affecting one in 10,000 Americans, the journal reports. The tall and long-armed Abraham Lincoln is believed to have had it. Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman and University of Maryland basketball player Chris Patton died of it when their aortas — the heart's major blood vessel — burst despite apparently excellent health. The finding is expected to have immediate use in early diagn...