Differential diagnosis of Nager acrofacial dysostosis syndrome: report of four patients with Nager syndrome and discussion of other related syndromes.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J M Opitz.
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We report a boy with predominantly unilateral severe tibia defect with a high grade of preaxial polydactyly. Family history suggests the possibility of autosomal dominant inheritance with reduced penetrance and quite variable expressivity. The boy's phenotype and other previously reported examples of predominantly unilateral involvement in autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive limb mutations strongly suggest a hypothesis of developmental resistance in the uninvolved parts.
We report 17 cases of the campomelic syndrome (CS) and a follow-up of one of the original patients of Maroteaux et al who is now 17 years old. Our review is based on 97 patients, including our own. An infant with the CS presents at birth with spectacularly short and bowed femora and tibiae. The initial chest radiograph confirms the diagnosis by demonstrating extremely small bladeless scapulae and hypoplastic pedicles of many thoracic vertebrae. Ossification of the sternal segments, pubis, talus, and knee epiphyses is also retarded. Usually the hips are dislocated and talipes equinovarus deformities are present. There is a small chondrocranium and a disproportionately large neurocranium. The bell-shaped chest, narrow superiorly, does not explain the degree of respiratory distress that soon ensues. Narrow airways from defective tracheo-bronchial cartilage can often be demonstrated on the radiograph, but micrognathia, retroglossia, cleft palate, hypoplastic lungs, and even CNS-based hypotonia contribute to the respiratory problem. Internal anomalies include frequent absence of olfactory bulbs and tracts and dilatation of cerebral ventricles, heart defects (PDA, VSD, stenosis of aortic isthmus), hydroureter and hydronephrosis, renal hypoplasia, renal hypoplasia, and rarely renal cysts.
We have studied a male Japanese infant with severe upper limb brachymesomelia, glomerulocystic renal dysplasia, abnormalities of the cranium and face, corneal opacities, and a possible congenital heart defect. He was born at term and died on the 10th day of heart and kidney failure. Review of the literature failed to show a similar case. Glomerulocystic renal dysplasia has been reported in association with a variety of the nonskeletal malformations but has not previously been described in association with bony malformations.
Recurrent encephalopathy affecting cerebellar and extrapyramidal structures was observed in five members of two families. The syndrome is characterized by sudden onset of truncal ataxia, occasionally accompanied by lethargy and impairment of speech. Choreic and athetoid movements were present, and there was loss of deep tendon reflexes with presence of pathological reflexes. Onset of the disease was early in childhood. Attacks lasted for days to weeks; residual symptoms comprising speech impairment and incoordination were seen in some patients. Both sexes were affected. The pedigrees suggest autosomal dominant inheritance. Pathogenesis remains unexplained by the laboratory studies done; metabolic or immunological processes predisposed by genetic factors are suggested. Similar reports from the literature are discussed; no identical family could be found.
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In studies of a 6-yr-old boy and his non-HLA identical 8-yr-old sister, we demonstrated 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3 beta-HSD) deficiency in the biosynthetic pathways of glucocorticoids and androgens, but not mineralocorticoids. The sister did not manifest abnormal genital development at birth, but developed premature adrenarche at the age of 4 yr, with clitoromegaly and advanced bone age. The brother had perineal hypospadias at birth and developed premature adrenarche at the age of 6 yr. In both siblings, baseline and ACTH-stimulated delta 5 steroids were markedly elevated. The baseline and ACTH-stimulated ratios of delta 5 to delta 4 steroids remained extremely high, and all steroids promptly suppressed with dexamethasone (DEX). Normal baseline PRA and serum and urinary aldosterone (Aldo) levels increased after stimulation with a low Na+ diet. Renal Na+ conservation was normal after dietary Na+ deprivation with and without DEX administration. The PRA to pH 1 Aldo ratio remained normal with normal and low Na+ diets, regardless of DEX administration, indicating normal glomerulosa function with renin stimulation. In both siblings, ACTH increased PRA and Aldo levels, maintaining the PRA to pH 1 Aldo ratio unchanged from the baseline value. In contrast, in control children, PRA was suppressed, while Aldo increased, resulting in a fall of the PRA to pH 1 Aldo ratio. The increase in PRA with exogenous ACTH in these siblings suggests there may be an ACTH-stimulable mineralocorticoid antagonist. During prolonged DEX administration, hCG administration caused a slight increase in 17-hydroxypregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone in both the siblings, while testosterone (T) rose poorly in the brother, and estradiol did not rise at all in the sister. These results suggest the possibility of a deficiency of 3 beta-HSD in the gonads as well as the adrenals. After [3H]dehydroepiandrosterone iv infusion, there was normal conversion to [3H]-conjugated testosterone glucuronide, suggesting the presence of normal peripheral 3 beta-HSD activity. We propose that in these siblings, there is a deficiency of 3 beta-HSD in the adrenal zona fasciculata and zona reticularis, whereas 3 beta-HSD activity is intact in the zona glomerulosa. In addition, in these siblings, 3 beta-HSD deficiency was present in the gonads, while peripheral 3 beta-HSD activity appeared to be intact. These cases demonstrate further the heterogeneity of congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 3 beta-HSD deficiency.
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We report two cases of inherited balanced translocation with severe CNS abnormalities and a number of other physical findings. In both cases a multiple congenital anomalies/mental retardation (MCA/MR) syndrome was suspected. However, in one case, parturitional and neonatal complications probably resulted in brain damage; in the other, prenatal brain damage due to intoxication from a dead twin or porencephalic cysts due to vascular accidents remain unconfirmed hypotheses. It is concluded that no MCA/MR syndrome was present and that the inherited balanced translocation was a coincidental finding in these two brain-damaged, mentally retarded children.
We describe in two brothers a previously apparently unreported multiple congenital anomalies/mental retardation (MCA/MR) syndrome of high, prominent forehead, vertical groove on tip of nose, "cowlick," ear anomalies, acrorenal field defect (incipient unilateral triphalangism, broad halluces, with unilateral renal agenesis in one of the boys), megalencephaly associated with congenital hypotonia, severe mental retardation and highly abnormal EEG without seizures, intrauterine growth retardation and primordial shortness of stature in one brother. This is a Group III ("provisionally private") MCA/MR syndrome and presumed to be due to a Mendelian (either X-linked or autosomal recessive) mutation. We do not think these patients have the FG syndrome. The condition has been named the neurofaciodigitorenal (NFDR) syndrome.
The brain findings at autopsy of an 18-year-old male with FG syndrome were megalencephaly, midline fusion of mammillary bodies, heterotopia of neuroglial tissue in the 7th and 8th nerves, and ependymal cell replacement by neuroglial tissue as well as a diffuse defect of neuronal cell migration evidenced from pachygyria of many gyri, dysgenesis of cerebral cortex, and heterotopia of neurons in the white matter of the centrum ovale. A cousin, studied at 20 weeks' gestational age, had gross turridolichocephaly with enlarged cranium and also multiple minor external and internal anomalies. An affected brother of this fetus died at 17 months of complications of a congenital heart defect and CNS dysfunction. X-linked inheritance of the FG syndrome is confirmed.
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Fields are those parts of the embryo in which the processes of development of complex structure appropriate to those parts are controlled and coordinated in a spatially ordered, temporally synchronized, and epimorphically hierarchical manner. Disturbances of field development may be corrected or may lead to anomalies of abnormal or incomplete differentiation. Powerful evidence for the existence of developmental fields comes from the observation of identical malformations resulting from two or more different causes; this identifies groups of embryonic structures that respond as a single developmental unit. Early action of a dysmorphogenetic cause in a field may lead to an extensive defect (e.g., cyclopic holoprosencephaly), later action to a lesser defect (e.g., single upper central incisor as mildest expression of autosomal-dominant holoprosencephaly). Disturbances of "long-distance" inductive relationships between primordia may simulate the presence of a malformation syndrome (e.g., renal and limb anomalies as disturbance of the acrorenal developmental field). The biology of developmental fields is complex but accessible through knowledge of comparative anatomy and embryology, phylogeny, experimental embryology, developmental genetics, and teratology. It challenges the clinician to a deeper understanding of development in order to give better care to the malformed and their families.
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