How Do You Diagnose Canavan Disease?
With a life expectancy ranging only into the teens, Canavan disease is a particularly serious genetic disorder that causes the brain to slowly degenerate into a porous, spongy tissue. Infants aged three to five months will begin to show signs of the disorder, with developmental difficulties, an enlarged head and poor control of the head being the most common symptoms. Read on to learn how to diagnose Canavan disease. Understand the primary symptoms. The so-called “triad of Canavan disease” includes the presence of poor muscle tone, macrocephaly (disproportionately large head) and an inability to control the head. The presence of this set of symptoms should immediately raise suspicion of Canavan disease. Your doctor will then proceed to try and diagnose the disorder using one of a variety of screening techniques. Know that a doctor can diagnose Canavan disease pre-natally by sampling amniotic fluid (fluid found in the womb surrounding the fetus). A chromosome analysis of the amniotic fl
