These pictures may look like an attractive woman in her 20s and her grandmother.
这些照片看起来像是一个有魅力的20岁年轻女人和她的祖母站在一起。
But they are said to be the same person – apparently taken just days apart.
但其实这是同一个人——两张照片拍摄的时间仅相隔几天。
The young Vietnamese woman at the centre of the improbable medical case, Nguyen Thi Phuong, claims the transformation may have come about because of an extreme allergy to seafood.
这名患上怪病的女子名叫阮莳芳,她说自己身体的这种变化可能是由非常严重的海鲜过敏症引起的。
Nguyen, 26, says she developed this puffy face and sagging skin in 2008 but was too poor to seek treatment. Earlier this month, doctors said they would examine her free of charge.
She has always worn wear a mask in public to hide her appearance from prying eyes, but she has now sought help from doctors to see if they can reverse the "ageing" effect.
Mrs Nguyen believes her condition was caused by a life-long allergy to seafood.
阮女士相信,她的病情是由一种终身海鲜过敏症引起的。
She said she had suffered a particularly bad reaction in 2008.
她说她在2008年曾有过一次特别严重的过敏反应。
Doctors say it may have been the long-term use of traditional medicines that caused the condition as they are often spiked with corticoids. These steroids speed up the effects of the unregulated remedies but could also have triggered the rare skin disease mastocytosis, where the body produces too many mast cells.