Formation | 1989 |
---|---|
Type | Nonprofit organization |
Headquarters | Oak Park, Illinois, United States |
Chairman | Rich Buckley |
Revenue (2015) | $911,170 [1] |
Expenses (2015) | $990,393 [1] |
Website | www.magicfoundation.org |
The MAGIC Foundation (short for Major Aspects of Growth in Children [2] ) is an American non-profit organization which helps families of children diagnosed with a wide variety of different growth impacting medical conditions through education, networking, physician referrals and numerous other services. It was founded in 1989. [3] [4] It is maintained through a network of volunteers and a full-time staff of five people. Their services include public education and awareness, quarterly newsletters, national networking, an annual convention, disorder specific brochures, and a Kids Program. [5]
The foundation has a membership network in excess of 25,000 families. The disorders MAGIC families have are grouped into primary categories. They include: congenital adrenal hyperplasia, precocious puberty, growth hormone deficiency (both adults and children), panhypopituitarism, McCune–Albright syndrome, Turner syndrome, Russell–Silver syndrome, thyroid disorders (both congenital and acquired), optic nerve hypoplasia, and other rare disorders. [2]
MAGIC offers a national educational program every year for the families of affected children and another for affected adults. Physicians specialising in these disorders, from all over the world, volunteer to speak to and assist the children and affected adults. They also offer a weekly email with links to recently published medical information to parents of children impacted by Small for Gestational Age babies, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, McCune-Albright Syndrome, Russell–Silver Syndrome (also known as Silver–Russell Syndrome), Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, Septo Optic Dysplasia, Hypophosphatasia, and others.
The MAGIC Foundation received significant funding from Genentech and Eli Lilly. It was thought that the money was to undertake case finding of children with short stature who might benefit from their human growth hormone treatments. [6] The US Food and Drug Administration investigated Genentech in 1992 and 1994 for using numerous charities to improperly advertise this medication. None of the monies donated to either the Human Growth Foundation nor The Magic foundation were donated with any stipulations as to how the money was to be utilized. The donations were support funds for the patients affected. [7]
Septo-optic dysplasia (SOD), known also as de Morsier syndrome, is a rare congenital malformation syndrome that features a combination of the underdevelopment of the optic nerve, pituitary gland dysfunction, and absence of the septum pellucidum . Two or more of these features need to be present for a clinical diagnosis—only 30% of patients have all three. French-Swiss doctor Georges de Morsier first recognized the relation of a rudimentary or absent septum pellucidum with hypoplasia of the optic nerves and chiasm in 1956.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by impaired cortisol synthesis. It results from the deficiency of one of the five enzymes required for the synthesis of cortisol in the adrenal cortex. Most of these disorders involve excessive or deficient production of hormones such as glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, or sex steroids, and can alter development of primary or secondary sex characteristics in some affected infants, children, or adults. It is one of the most common autosomal recessive disorders in humans.
Growth hormone deficiency (GHD), or human growth hormone deficiency, is a medical condition resulting from not enough growth hormone (GH). Generally the most noticeable symptom is that an individual attains a short height. Newborns may also present low blood sugar or a small penis size. In adults there may be decreased muscle mass, high cholesterol levels, or poor bone density.
Virilization or masculinization is the biological development of adult male characteristics in young males or females. Most of the changes of virilization are produced by androgens.
Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is a medical condition arising from the underdevelopment of the optic nerve(s). This condition is the most common congenital optic nerve anomaly. The optic disc appears abnormally small, because not all the optic nerve axons have developed properly. It is often associated with endocrinopathies, developmental delay, and brain malformations. The optic nerve, which is responsible for transmitting visual signals from the retina to the brain, has approximately 1.2 million nerve fibers in the average person. In those diagnosed with ONH, however, there are noticeably fewer nerves.
Fibrous dysplasia is a very rare nonhereditary genetic disorder where normal bone and marrow is replaced with fibrous tissue, resulting in formation of bone that is weak and prone to expansion. As a result, most complications result from fracture, deformity, functional impairment, pain, and the impingement of nerves. Disease occurs along a broad clinical spectrum ranging from mostly asymptomatic incidental lesions, to severe disabling disease. Disease can affect one bone (monostotic), multiple (polyostotic), or all bones (panostotic) and may occur in isolation or in combination with café au lait skin macules and hyperfunctioning endocrinopathies, termed McCune–Albright syndrome. More rarely, fibrous dysplasia may be associated with intramuscular myxomas, termed Mazabraud's syndrome. Fibrous dysplasia is very rare, and there is no known cure. While fibrous dysplasia is not itself a form of cancer, in severe cases it may undergo a malignant transformation into cancers such as osteosarcoma or chondrosarcoma, so some clinicians may regard it as precancerous rather than benign.
Short stature refers to a height of a human which is below typical. Whether a person is considered short depends on the context. Because of the lack of preciseness, there is often disagreement about the degree of shortness that should be called short. Dwarfism is the condition of being very short, often caused by a medical condition. In a medical context, short stature is typically defined as an adult height that is more than two standard deviations below a population’s mean for age and sex, which corresponds to the shortest 2.3% of individuals in that population.
Hypoplasia is underdevelopment or incomplete development of a tissue or organ. Although the term is not always used precisely, it properly refers to an inadequate or below-normal number of cells. Hypoplasia is similar to aplasia, but less severe. It is technically not the opposite of hyperplasia. Hypoplasia is a congenital condition, while hyperplasia generally refers to excessive cell growth later in life.
Macroorchidism is a disorder found in males, specifically in children, where a subject has abnormally large testes. The condition is commonly inherited in connection with fragile X syndrome (FXS), which is also the second most common genetic cause of intellectual disability. The condition is also a rare sign of the McCune-Albright syndrome. The opposite of macroorchidism is called microorchidism, which is the condition of abnormally small testes.
McCune–Albright syndrome is a complex genetic disorder affecting the bone, skin and endocrine systems. It is a mosaic disease arising from somatic activating mutations in GNAS, which encodes the alpha-subunit of the Gs heterotrimeric G protein.
The zona fasciculata constitutes the middle and also the widest zone of the adrenal cortex, sitting directly beneath the zona glomerulosa. Constituent cells are organized into bundles or "fascicles".
Micromastia is a medical term describing the postpubertal underdevelopment of a woman's breast tissue. Just as it is impossible to define 'normal' breast size, there is no objective definition of micromastia. Breast development is commonly asymmetric and one or both breasts may be small. This condition may be a congenital defect associated with underlying abnormalities of the pectoral muscle, related to trauma or it may be a more subjective aesthetic description.
Aplasia is a birth defect where an organ or tissue is wholly or largely absent. It is caused by a defect in a developmental process.
Disorders of sex development (DSDs), also known as differences in sex development or variations in sex characteristics (VSC), are congenital conditions affecting the reproductive system, in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical.
Acrodysostosis is a rare congenital malformation syndrome which involves shortening of the interphalangeal joints of the hands and feet, intellectual disability in approximately 90% of affected children, and peculiar facies. Other common abnormalities include short head, small broad upturned nose with flat nasal bridge, protruding jaw, increased bone age, intrauterine growth retardation, juvenile arthritis and short stature. Further abnormalities of the skin, genitals, teeth, and skeleton may occur.
3C syndrome is a rare condition whose symptoms include heart defects, cerebellar hypoplasia, and cranial dysmorphism. It was first described in the medical literature in 1987 by Ritscher and Schinzel, for whom the disorder is sometimes named.
Adrenal gland disorders are conditions that interfere with the normal functioning of the adrenal glands. Your body produces too much or too little of one or more hormones when you have an adrenal gland dysfunction. The type of issue you have and the degree to which it affects your body's hormone levels determine the symptoms.
Silver–Russell syndrome (SRS), also called Silver–Russell dwarfism, is a rare congenital growth disorder. In the United States it is usually referred to as Russell–Silver syndrome (RSS), and Silver–Russell syndrome elsewhere. It is one of 200 types of dwarfism and one of five types of primordial dwarfism.
Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) is a congenital disorder characterised by the triad of an absent or exceedingly thin pituitary stalk, an ectopic or absent posterior pituitary and/or absent or hypoplastic anterior pituitary.