Oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum (OAVS, OMIM 164 210) is a developmental disorder primarily involving structures derived from the first and second pharyngeal arches during embryogenesis. The phenotype is clinically heterogeneous and is typically characterised by abnormal development of the ear, mandible anomalies and defects of the vertebral column. OAVS may occur as a multiple congenital abnormality, and asso...
Intellectual disability and cerebellar atrophy occur together in a large number of genetic conditions and are frequently associated with microcephaly and/or epilepsy. Here we report the identification of causal mutations in Sorting Nexin 14 (SNX14) found in seven affected individuals from three unrelated consanguineous families who presented with recessively inherited moderate-severe intellectual disability, ce...
We report on two Portuguese sisters with a very similar phenotype characterized by severe intellectual disability, absent speech, relative macrocephaly, coarse face, cerebellar hypotrophy, and severe ataxia. Additional common features include increased thickness of the cranial vault, delayed dental eruption, talipes equino-varus, clinodactyly, and camptodactyly of the fifth finger. The older sister has retinal ...
Juvenile polyposis of infancy is the most severe and life-threatening form of juvenile polyposis. This disease typically presents in the first two years of life with gastrointestinal bleeding, diarrhea, inanition, and exudative enteropathy. In very few reports concerning this entity, a large deletion in the long arm of chromosome 10 (10q23), encompassing the PTEN and BMPR1A genes, was found. The authors report ...
Lenz-Majewski syndrome (LMS) is a syndrome of intellectual disability and multiple congenital anomalies that features generalized craniotubular hyperostosis. By using whole-exome sequencing and selecting variants consistent with the predicted dominant de novo etiology of LMS, we identified causative heterozygous missense mutations in PTDSS1, which encodes phosphatidylserine synthase 1 (PSS1). PSS1 is one of two...
Here we report on a Portuguese family with three sisters who shared moderate intellectual disability, unusual facial morphology (short palpebral fissures; broad nasal tip; thin upper and lower vermillion; broad and pointed chin) and hand anomalies in two of them (short left third and fifth right metacarpals in one case; marked syndactyly between the third and fourth fingers in another). One of the sisters had m...
Aims: Although there are more than 400 cases of Kabuki syndrome described in the literature, it is believed that this syndrome is under-diagnosed. Most cases occur sporadically, despite cases with autosomal dominant familial transmission being described. Here we describe three cases identified in the same family. Cases description: A family (mother and two children) was diagnosed with Kabuki syndrome. The three...
Recent advances in molecular genetics have allowed the determination of the genetic cause of some childhood non-syndromic deafness. In Portugal only a small proportion of families are referred to a clinical genetics service in order to clarify the etiology of the deafness and to provide genetic counseling. Consequently, there are no published studies of the prior beliefs of parents about the causes of hereditar...