Blood Sweet & Stupidity are a team from Bury who are about to get muddy for Annabelle’s Challenge to help raise awareness of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in the Tough Mudder on Saturday 5th October 2013, please help support the team and raise funds for EDS UK.

The team are a crazy bunch with hearty & generously fantastic focused determination:

Paul Rathmill, Claire Rathmill, Hayley Knowles, Mike Livesey, Ian Cockcroft & Emma Hallows.

Annabelle's Challenge:

At just 3 yrs old Annabelle Jane Griffin 'AJ' was diagnosed with Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (VEDS), it is life threatening and incurable.

 

Annabelle from Bury, Lancashire, is one of the youngest to have been diagnosed in the UK with VEDS and is at risk of blood vessel aneurysms, tears of the lining of vessels, and even ruptures of large blood vessels and major organs.

 

So please dig deep and donate now and help make the invisible, visible.

 

For further information please visit Annabelle’s Challenge  

 

You can follow us on twitter @AJsChallenge  

  

What is Vascular Ehlers-Danlos?

The Vascular Type of EDS is characterised by possible arterial or organ rupture as a result of spontaneous rupture of vessels or organs due to the result of even minor trauma.  The Vascular Type of EDS is the most serious form of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

 

People with the disorder have thin, fragile skin that bruises easily. Veins are visible beneath the skin, particularly on the chest and abdomen, and hands and feet may have an aged appearance. Unlike people with other forms of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, people with the Vascular Type have skin that is soft but not overly stretchy. Facial features are often distinctive, including protruding eyes, a thin nose and lips, sunken cheeks, and a small chin.

 

Other signs of the disorder include an unusually large range of movement (hypermobility) of hand and foot joints, tearing of tendons and muscles, painfully swollen veins in the legs, lung collapse, and slow wound healing following injury or surgery. Infants with the condition may be born with hip dislocations and a foot disorder called clubfoot, which causes the foot to turn inward and downward.

 

Unpredictable ruptures of arteries and organs are the most serious complications of the Vascular Type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. A torn artery can cause internal bleeding, stroke, or shock, and is the most common cause of death in patients with this disorder. Rupture of the intestine is seen in 25 to 30 percent of affected individuals and tearing of the uterus (womb) during pregnancy affects 2 to 3 percent of women. Although serious problems are rare in childhood, more than 80 percent of patients experience severe complications by the age of 40.

 

The vascular type is a rare form of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Mutations in the COL3A1 gene cause the Vascular Type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  The protein made by the COL3A1 gene is used to assemble larger molecules called type III collagens. Collagens provide structure and strength to connective tissue throughout the body. Type III collagen is mostly found in skin, blood vessels, and internal organs. If the structure or production  of type III collagen is altered by a mutation in the COL3A1 gene, collagen fibrils cannot be assembled properly in these tissues, and the signs and symptoms of the Vascular Type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome result.

 

This condition is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, which means one copy of the altered gene is sufficient to cause the disorder. About half of all cases are inherited from a parent who has the condition. The other half of cases occur in people whose families have no history of the disorder; these sporadic cases are caused by new mutations in one copy of the COL3A1 gene.

 

Clinical Diagnosis

 

Diagnostic criteria and standardized nomenclature for the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes were suggested by a medical advisory group in a conference sponsored by the Ehlers-Danlos Foundation (USA) and the Ehlers-Danlos Support Group (UK) at Villefranche in 1997 [Beighton et al 1998]. Criteria are modified here to reflect the authors' experience.

 

The combination of any two of the major diagnostic criteria should have a high specificity for the Vascular Type of EDS.  Biochemical testing is strongly recommended to confirm the diagnosis.

The presence of one or more minor criteria supports the diagnosis of the vascular type of EDS but is not sufficient to establish the diagnosis.

 

Major Diagnostic Criteria for the Vascular Type of EDS

•             Arterial rupture

•             Intestinal rupture

•             Uterine rupture during pregnancy

•             Family history of the vascular type of EDS

 

Minor Diagnostic Criteria for the Vascular Type of EDS

•             Thin, translucent skin (especially noticeable on the chest/abdomen)

•             Easy bruising (spontaneous or with minimal trauma)

•             Characteristic facial appearance (thin lips and philtrum, small chin, thin nose, large eyes)

•             Acrogeria (an aged appearance to the extremities, particularly the hands)

•             Hypermobility of small joints

•             Tendon/muscle rupture

•             Early-onset varicose veins

•             Arteriovenous carotid-cavernous sinus fistula

•             Pneumothorax/pneumohemothorax

•             Chronic joint subluxations/dislocations

•             Congenital dislocation of the hips

•             Talipes equinovarus (clubfoot)

•             Gingival recession

 

For more information on EDS please visit www.ehlers-danlos.org