Neurofibromatosis: types, causes, symptoms, diagnosis

What is neurofibromatosis?


- Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder of the nervous system or it can happen because of a mutation (change) in your genes.
- It mainly affects how nerve cells form and grow and it causes tumors to form on nerve tissue.
- These tumors can develop anywhere in your body including your brain, spinal cord and nerves.
- The tumors are usually non-cancerous (Benign), but sometime can become cancerous (malignant).

Types: 


There are three types of neurofibromatosis:

1- NF type 1 (von recklinghausen NF or peripheral NF)
2- NF type 2 ( bilateral acoustic NF (BNA),
3- Schwannomatosis.

Causes:


Neurofibromatosis is mostly inherited ( passed on by family members through our genes), but about 50% of people newly diagnosed, which can arise spontaneously through a mutation (change) in the genes.

Symptoms:


These are some symptoms include:

- Hearing loss
- Loss of vision
- Bone deformities
- Light brown spots on the skin
- Poor balance
- Loss of muscle

Diagnosis:


There are some test include:

- Physical examination
- Family history
- X- rays
- Computerized tomography (CT) scans
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Biopsy of neurofibromas
- Eye tests
- Test for particular symptoms such as, hearing or balance tests.


Thanks for reading this article, if this article is helpful for you. So please comment and share your friends circle.

Share this

Related Posts

Latest
Previous
Next Post »