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From Centre de Génétique Humaine (L.V.M.), CHU Sart-Tilman, Université de Liège, Belgium; Department of Medical Genetics (M.Y.-A., H.K.), Faculty of Medicine, University of Istanbul, Turkey; Department of Clinical Genetics (E.S.), Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Neurology (S.G.), CHU Tivoli, La Louvière, Belgium; Department of Medical Genetics (L.B.-V.), Schneider Children's Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel; Department of Pediatrics (E.L.-T.), San Joao Hospital, Porto, Portugal; Unité de Génétique Médicale (J.V.), Service de Médecine Néonatale, CHU Nancy, France; Department of Pediatrics (M.F.), CHU Charleroi, Belgium; College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (M.G.), Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain; Centre for Metabolic Diseases (J.J.), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Institut für Medizinische Genetik (S.M.), Charité, Campus Virchow, Berlin, Germany; and Departments of Human Genetics, Neurology, and Pediatrics (W.B.D.), The University of Chicago, IL.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. L. Van Maldergem, Centre de Génétique Humaine, CHU Sart-Tilman, Université de Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium vmald{at}skypro.be
Objective: To delineate a new syndrome of brain dysgenesis and cutis laxa based on the description of 11 patients belonging to nine unrelated families recruited through an international collaboration effort.
Methods: Careful clinical assessment of patients from birth to the age of 23 years with follow-up studies ranging from 3 to 20 years. Biochemical studies of serum proteins glycosylation by isoelectric focusing and capillary zone electrophoresis were performed in 10 patients. Brain MRI studies using conventional methods were analyzed in eight patients.
Results: An expanded clinical spectrum of a syndrome comprising facial dysmorphia (enlarged anterior fontanelles, downward slant of palpebral fissures, prominent root of the nose), a connective tissue disorder (inguinal hernia, hip dislocation, high myopia), and neurologic impairment was defined. Early developmental delay was followed by onset of generalized seizures by the end of the first decade and a subsequent neurodegenerative course. A defect of N- or N- plus O-glycosylation of serum transferrins and ApoCIII was observed in 10 patients. An unusual cobblestone-like cortical malformation over the frontal and parietal regions was seen in eight patients and cerebellar abnormalities, including two patients with Dandy-Walker malformation, were observed in three patients.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that autosomal recessive cutis laxa, Debré type, initially considered a dermatologic syndrome, is a multisystemic disorder with cobblestone-like brain dysgenesis manifesting as developmental delay and an epileptic neurodegenerative syndrome. It might represent a metabolic cause of Dandy-Walker malformation. It is associated with a deficient N- and-O glycosylation of proteins and shares many similarities with muscle-eye-brain syndromes.
GLOSSARY: ARCL = autosomal recessive congenital cutis laxa; CZE = capillary zone electrophoresis; DWM = Dandy-Walker malformation; FCMD = Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy; IEF = isoelectric focusing; MEB = muscle-eye-brain disease; WWS = Walker-Warburg syndrome.
Received October 3, 2007. Accepted in final form April 4, 2008.
Supplemental data at www.neurology.org
e-Pub ahead of print on August 20, 2008, at www.neurology.org.
Disclosure: The authors report no disclosures.
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