Smith-Magenis syndrome: Report of morphological and new functional cardiac findings with review of the literature

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a genetic disorder characterized by multiple congenital anomalies, sleep disturbance, behavioral impairment, and intellectual disability. Its genetic cause has been defined as an alteration in the Retinoic Acid-Induced 1 gene. Cardiac anomalies have been reported since the first description of this condition in patients with 17p11.2 deletion. Variable cardiac defects, including ventricular septal defects, atrial septal defects, tricuspid stenosis, mitral stenosis, tricuspid and mitral regurgitation, aortic stenosis, pulmonary stenosis, mitral valve prolapse, tetralogy of Fallot, and total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, have been anecdotally reported and systematic case series are still lacking. Herein, we define the spectrum of the cardiac phenotype and describe for the first time the cardiac function in a large cohort of pediatric patients with SMS. Revision of the literature and correlations between genotype and cardiac phenotype was performed.

Congenital scoliosis in Smith-Magenis syndrome: a case report and review of the literature

The Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a complex and rare congenital condition that is characterized by minor craniofacial anomalies, short stature, sleep disturbances, behavioral, and neurocognitive abnormalities, as well as variable multisystemic manifestations. Little is reported about spinal deformity associated with this syndrome.This study is to present a case of scoliosis occurring in the setting of SMS and explore the possible mechanisms between the 2 diseases.The patient is a 13-year-old Chinese female with congenital scoliosis and Tetralogy of Fallot, mental retardation, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertrophy of tonsil, conductive hearing loss, and agenesis of the epiglottis. An interphase fluorescent in situ hybridization at chromosome 17p11.2 revealed a heterozygous deletion, confirming a molecular diagnosis of SMS. She underwent a posterior correction at thoracic 1-lumbar 1 (T1-L1) levels, using the Moss-SI spinal system. At 6-month follow-up, the patient was clinically pain free and well balanced. Plain radiographs showed solid spine fusion with no loss of correction.Congenital cardiac disease, immunodeficiency, and severe behavioral problems can affect the surgical outcome following spine fusion and need to be taken into consideration for the surgeon and anesthesiologist. Scoliosis is not uncommon among patients with SMS, and there is a potential association between congenital scoliosis and SMS. The potential mechanisms in the pathogenesis of congenital scoliosis of SMS included retinoic acid-induced 1 (RAI1) microdeletion and RAI1 gene point mutation.

A 1.1Mb deletion in distal 13q deletion syndrome region with congenital heart defect and postaxial polydactyly: additional support for a CHD locus at distal 13q34 region

13q deletion syndrome is a rare genetic disorder, especially for group 3 deletion (13q33-q34 deletion). Previously we described a patient with congenital heart defect and mental retardation and proposed that a distal 6Mb region might contain the causative gene of congenital heart defect. Here we present a new patient with congenital heart defects (CHD), hand and foot anomalies and mild mental retardation. We identified a 1.1Mb deletion at chromosome 13q34 with high resolution SNP-array BeadChips (HumanOmni1-Quad, Illumina, USA). This chromosome region contains ten annotated genes, including GRK1, TFDP1, RASA3 and GAS6. To our knowledge, this represents the smallest 13q34 deletion identified to date. Our study provides additional support that distal 13q34 deletion region might contain key gene(s) responsible for cardiac development.