Gee's disease
Related people
A gastrointestinal disease resulting from defective fat and calcium absorption, with deficient capacity for metabolising the gluten fraction gliadin. Main symptoms are intestinal infantilism with abdominal distension, fatty diarrhoea, anorexia, extreme wasting, fatigue, and stunting of growth sometimes to the point of dwarfism. Intake of gluten-free food improves the condition markedly. Most commonly seen in children, with onset between 6 and 9 months, but also occurs in adults. Autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance has been suggested.
Bibliography
- S. Gee:
On the celiac affection.
Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, London, 1888, 24: 17-20. - C. A. Herter:
On infantilism from chronic intestinal infection; characterized by the overgrowth and persistence of flora in the nursing period.
New York, Macmillan & C0., 1908. - O. J. Heubner:
Über schwere Verdauungsinsuffizienz beim Kinde jenseits des Säuglingsalters.
Jahrbuch für Kinderheilkunde und physische Erziehung, Wien, 1909, 70: 667. - E. T. Thaysen:
The ”coeliac affection”-idiopathic steatorrhea.
Lancet, London, 1929, 1: 1086-1089.