Q.Discuss the following endocrine disorders with reference to the gland/hormone involved, their cause, and their principal symptoms: dwarfism, gigantism and acromegaly.

[!TLDR]

Dwarfism = GH deficiency in childhood; gigantism = GH excess in childhood; acromegaly = GH excess in adults (after bone fusion). …

All three disorders involve growth hormone (GH), secreted by the anterior pituitary, but differ in whether GH is deficient or in excess, and, for the excess disorders, in whether the excess occurs before or after the epiphyseal growth plates of the long bones have fused. Dwarfism results from GH DEFICIENCY during childhood, while the epiphyseal plates are still open; overall body growth is severely reduced, producing markedly stunted stature, though body proportions generally remain close to normal since growth is reduced roughly uniformly. Gigantism results from GH EXCESS during childhood, again before epiphyseal fusion; the long bones continue lengthening for an abnormally extended period, producing an abnormally increased final adult height, sometimes very substantially so. Acromegaly results from GH EXCESS in an ADULT, after the epiphyseal plates have already fused, so the long bones can no longer increase in length; the excess GH instead causes disproportionate thickening and enlargement of bones and soft tissues still capable of growth -- chiefly the hands, feet …

Build a two-axis comparison: hypo vs hyper GH secretion, crossed with before vs after epiphyseal fusion -- dwarfism is the only hypo case; gigantism and a …

Treating gigantism and acromegaly as the same condition under two names -- they are both GH-excess disorders, but gigantism is specifically pre-fusion (childhood, height increases) w …