History
Williams syndrome was first described by Dr. J.C.P. Williams and his colleagues, who wrote in 1961 of four patients with supravalvular aortic stenosis, mental disability, and facial features including a broad forehead, lowset "drooping" cheeks, widely spaced eyes, and a wide-set mouth. A year after this report, German physician Dr. A. J. Beuren described three new patients with the same presentation. This led to the disorder's full original name of Williams-Beuren syndrome, which is still used in some medical publications. From 1964 to 1975, small research reports broadened medical knowledge of this disorder's cardiovascular problems. Then in 1975, Drs. K. Jones and D. Smith conducted a large-scale report on numerous patients with Williams syndrome, ranging in age from infancy to adulthood, and described the behavioral and observable physical symptoms in greater detail than previously recorded.
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