Overview

What is Lipodystrophy?

Lipodystrophies are a group of rare conditions that affect very few people. They are characterised by a lack of subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) with this being the main sign of the condition.

Generalised lipodystrophy

The whole body is affected by the lack of fat.

Partial lipodystrophy

Certain areas of the body is affected by the lack of fat. Subcutaneous fat is part of the body's adipose tissue.

If you have too little subcutaneous body fat, it can make you very ill. We need a certain amount of body fat. Why? Because our fat has important functions which allow us to lead healthy lives with an even distribution of fat throughout the body.

Lipodystrophy is characterised by partial or complete absence of adipose tissue. There are four main subtypes – congenital generalised lipodystrophy, acquired generalised lipodystrophy, acquired partial lipodystrophy and familial partial lipodystrophy.

Fact: Lipodystrophies are always linked to a lack of subcutaneous fat. But the extent and location of fat loss depends on the form of lipodystrophy.

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Symptoms

What are the common features of lipodystrophy?

Generalised and partial lipodystrophy (GL and PL) are severe diseases with external signs that are visible and signs that can only be identified on examination. Signs and symptoms may manifest differently in each patient and not all occur in every patient. Even the same form of lipodystrophy can show different physical and metabolic symptoms, both in type and severity. Therefore, the appearance of patients with generalised and partial lipodystrophy subtypes can vary greatly.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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