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Gigantism or giantism, (from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 gigas, gigantas "giant") is a condition characterized by excessive growth and height significantly above average.

medical term, gigantism can refer to:



e is no precise definition of the degree of height that qualifies a person to be termed a "giant."

The term has been typically applied to those whose height is not just in the upper 1% of the population but several standard deviation
Standard deviation

In statistics, standard deviation is a simple measure of the variability or statistical dispersion of a data set. A low standard deviation indicates that all of the data points are very close to the same value , while high standard deviation indicates that the data are ?spread out? over a large range of values....
s above mean for persons of the same sex, age, and ethnic ancestry.






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Gigantism or giantism, (from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 gigas, gigantas "giant") is a condition characterized by excessive growth and height significantly above average.

Types

As a medical term, gigantism can refer to:
  • "Pituitary gigantism", which is due to prepubertal growth hormone
    Growth hormone

    Growth hormone is a peptide hormone. It stimulates human development and cell reproduction in humans and other animals. It is a 191-amino acid, single chain polypeptide hormone which is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland....
     excess. This is sometimes equated with acromegaly
    Acromegaly

    Acromegaly is a syndrome that results when the pituitary gland produces excess human growth hormone after epiphyseal plate closure. A number of disorders may affect the pituitary to create this circumstance, although most commonly it involves a GH producing tumor derived from a distinct type of cells and called pituitary adenoma....
    , but more precisely, an excess of growth hormone leads to "pituitary gigantism" (vertical growth) if the epiphyseal plate
    Epiphyseal plate

    The epiphyseal plate is a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone. The plate is found in children and adolescents; in adults, who have stopped growing, the plate is replaced by an epiphyseal line....
    s have not yet closed, but it leads to "acromegaly" (lateral growth) if they have closed.


  • "Cerebral gigantism", also known as Sotos syndrome
    Sotos syndrome

    Sotos syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by excessive physical growth during the first 2 to 3 years of life. The disorder may be accompanied by mild mental retardation, delayed motor, cognitive, and social development, hypotonia , and speech impairments....
    , which is due to a mutation in NSD1
    NSD1

    NSD1 is a transcription coregulator protein associated with Sotos syndrome and Weaver syndrome.ReferencesExternal links...
    .


Terminology

There is no precise definition of the degree of height that qualifies a person to be termed a "giant."

The term has been typically applied to those whose height is not just in the upper 1% of the population but several standard deviation
Standard deviation

In statistics, standard deviation is a simple measure of the variability or statistical dispersion of a data set. A low standard deviation indicates that all of the data points are very close to the same value , while high standard deviation indicates that the data are ?spread out? over a large range of values....
s above mean for persons of the same sex, age, and ethnic ancestry. The term is seldom applied to those who are simply "tall" or "above average" - whose heights appear to be the healthy result of normal genetics
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
 and nutrition.

Other names somewhat obsolete for this pathology are hypersomia (Greek: hyper over the normal level; soma body) and somatomegaly (Greek; soma body, object pronoun somatos of the body; megas, megalos great).

Many of those who have been identified with gigantism have suffered from multiple health problems involving their circulatory
Circulatory system

The circulatory system is an organ that moves nutrients, gases, and wastes to and from cells to help fight diseases and help stabilize body temperature and pH to maintain homeostasis....
 or skeletal system.

See also

  • Acromegaly
    Acromegaly

    Acromegaly is a syndrome that results when the pituitary gland produces excess human growth hormone after epiphyseal plate closure. A number of disorders may affect the pituitary to create this circumstance, although most commonly it involves a GH producing tumor derived from a distinct type of cells and called pituitary adenoma....
  • Deep-sea gigantism
    Deep-sea gigantism

    In zoology, deep-sea gigantism, also known as abyssal gigantism, is the tendency for species of crustaceans, invertebrates and other deep-sea-dwelling animals to display a largest organism than their shallow-water counterparts....
  • Growth hormone
    Growth hormone

    Growth hormone is a peptide hormone. It stimulates human development and cell reproduction in humans and other animals. It is a 191-amino acid, single chain polypeptide hormone which is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland....
  • Island gigantism
    Island gigantism

    Island gigantism is a biological phenomenon where the size of animals isolated on an island increases dramatically over generations. It is a form of natural selection in which bigger size provides a survival advantage ....
  • List of humans with gigantism
    List of humans with gigantism

    This is a list of notable people who have or had a form of gigantism.Note: This is not a list of tall people. There are several instances of men well over 7 feet tall who did not have any form of gigantism....
  • List of tallest people
    List of tallest people

    This is a list of the tallest people, living and dead, in the world....
  • Local gigantism
    Local gigantism

    Local gigantism or localised gigantism is a condition in which a certain part of the body acquires larger than normal size due to excessive growth of the anatomical structures or abnormal accumulation of substances....
  • Megafauna
    Megafauna

    The term megafauna has two distinct meanings in the biological sciences. The less commonly found meaning is of any animal which can be seen with the unaided eye, in contrast to microfauna....
  • Overgrowth syndrome
    Overgrowth syndrome

    Overgrowth syndrome is a group of genetic disorders in which there is an abnormal increase in the size of the body or a body part that is often noted at birth....


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