This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Rodrigo Dominguez, MD
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

JAMA. 1989;262(3):350.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply. —

The subject of bone dysplasias is still not very well understood and consequently open to controversy; the untreated cretin usually presents with epiphyseal dysgenesis and metaphyseal and disaphyseal dysplastic changes secondary to delayed and abnormal skeletal maturation. The results are stunted height, coxa plana, bowed legs, increased lumbar kyphosis, and shortening at the base of the skull,^1,2 features that may resemble those of achondroplasia and some forms of mucopolysaccharidosis. El Nino de Vallecas, besides his dwarfed body, has the stunted look of an idiot, a feature absent in the normally intelligent achondroplastic.

Velázquez has several paintings of dwarfs at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. The female dwarf displayed in his painting Las Meninas was Maria Barbola, a German lady-in-waiting for the princess and most probably an achondroplastic. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?