ARACHNODACTYLIA AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

Abstract

Arachnodactylia, or "spider digits," is a condition first described in 1896 by Marfan. It is characterized by the striking length and slenderness of the extremities, and differentiated from the gigantism of glandular dystrophy by the almost invariable accompaniment of congenital anomalies such as cardiac defects, webbing of the fingers, dislocation of the lenses, and many other conditions. The condition was first brought to the attention of one of us by the late Dr. J. S. Fowler, who demonstrated the condition at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, in 1922. The case about to be reported is the second one seen by us and the eighteenth reported in literature. It has seemed worth while to publish an account of this condition as, so far as we know, there has been no previous mention of it in American medical literature. CASE REPORT B. S., a girl, aged 21 months, was admitted