Primordial has been defined as belonging to or being
characteristic of the earliest stages of development of an
organism. Therefore, Primordial Dwarfism is a class of disorders
where growth delay occurs at the earliest stages of development.
Unlike some of the other forms of dwarfism where newborn infants
can have average lengths, children with Primordial Dwarfism are
born smaller than average and have intrauterine growth
retardation (IUGR). Unlike some of the other conditions
described on this website, primordial dwarfism is not a specific
diagnosis. It is in fact a class of disorders to which at least
5 different conditions are currently grouped: - Russell-Silver
syndrome - Seckel syndrome - Meier-Gorlin syndrome - Majewski
osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism (MOPD) Types I/III - MOPD
Type II The Russell-Silver, Seckel and Meier-Gorlin syndromes
are relatively well defined entities and we will not discuss
them here. We will limit our discussion to MOPD Type II. Most of
the information below can be examined