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Houston Hosts International Meeting on
Inherited Bone Disorder
Experts from around the world gathered at the Shriners Hospital Nov. 4-5 to share their research on multiple hereditary exostoses (MHE) – an inherited bone growth disorder.
The second international MHE meeting was sponsored by Shriners Hospital and the National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases, said meeting co-organizer Jacqueline Hecht, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and director of the Genetic Counseling Program at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
Twenty-nine scientists and physicians presented research results on MHE, which causes bony spurs, or outgrowths, on the growth plates at the ends of bones. In rare instances, the growths become malignant.
“The average MHE patients will have two to three surgeries in their lifetime when the bony growths cause problems such as knock-knee deformities and bowing in the legs,” Hecht said. “The bony growths can also cause length discrepancies in the arms and legs; causing one leg or arm to be longer than the other.”
The meeting brought together basic researchers from various disciplines, orthopedic physicians, medical geneticists, and families with MHE.
A workshop for people who have the condition attracted 100 participants from as far away as Japan and Russia. Genetic counseling student Sandra Darilek and Hecht presented results of a study on MHE and pain.
Co-organizers with Hecht were Sarah Ziegler, national director and coordinator of research for the MHE Coalition, and Dan Wells, Ph.D., professor, University of Houston.