Wiktionary
n. (context medicine English) Abnormal shortness of the fingers or toes
Wikipedia
Brachydactyly ( Greek βραχύς = "short" plus δάκτυλος = "finger"), is a medical term which literally means "shortness of the fingers and toes" (digits). The shortness is relative to the length of other long bones and other parts of the body. Brachydactyly is an inherited, usually dominant trait. It most often occurs as an isolated dysmelia, but can also occur with other anomalies as part of many congenital syndromes.
Nomograms for normal values of finger length as a ratio to other body measurements have been published. In clinical genetics the most commonly used index of digit length is the dimensionless ratio of the length of the 3rd (middle) finger to the hand length. Both are expressed in the same units (centimeters, for example) and are measured in an open hand from the fingertip to the principal creases where the finger joins the palm and where the palm joins the wrist. A nomogram can be found in the Appendix of Jones, ed. Smith's Recognizable Patterns of Human Malformation, 5th edition, Philadelphia: Saunders (1997).
Usage examples of "brachydactyly".
The factor for brachydactyly evidently produces its primary effect on the bones of the hand, but it also produces a secondary effect on all the bones of the body.
It has been found that an abnormality quite like brachydactyly is produced by abnormality in the pituitary gland.
It is then fair to suppose that the factor which produces brachydactyly does so by affecting the pituitary gland in some way.