It affects males and females from all racial and ethnic groups. Symptoms of Marfan syndrome may be mild or severe, and may be present at birth or appear in adult life. The disorder sometimes causes sudden death in adults who were unaware that they had it. This was the case with volleyball star and U.S. Olympic team member Flo Hyman, who died in 1986 from complications of Marfan syndrome. It is a variable pattern of abnormalities that may affect the heart, blood vessels, lungs, eyes, bones and ligaments.
Affected individuals are often tall, slender, and loose-jointed.
Arms and legs may be unusually long in proportion to the torso. The face may be long and narrow, with a high roof of the mouth and crowded teeth. Heart and blood vessels nearly always are affected. Heart valves, pairs or trios of flaps that keep the blood flowing in one direction through the heart, usually are oversized and floppy. The body's largest artery, the aorta, is nearly always affected to some extent.