An intragenic deletion within CTNNA2 intron 7 in a boy with short stature and speech delay: A case report

Background/Objectives:

Deletions on the short arm of chromosome 2 at bands p11 and p12 have been detected in association with short stature, mild mental retardation and speech delay.

Results:

We describe a 4 year-old boy with some facial dysmorphic traits, congenital malformations and pre- and post-natal growth failure. He also presented marked expressive language problems. The molecular karyotype revealed a 108 Kb deletion within the seventh intron of the CTNNA2 gene at 2p11.2-p12. We observed that some features (short stature, facial dysmorphisms and speech delay) were present in our patient and in patients carrying much larger overlapping deletions.

Conclusions:

The description of this small intragenic rearrangement might help to elucidate the role of the single genes included in the 2p11.2-p12 critical region.

[Catch-22? Wide variety of phenotypes associated with the chromosome 22q11 deletion syndrome in two patients]

The chromosome 22q11 deletion syndrome may present with a variety of phenotypes. Its symptoms generally include a characteristic facial dysmorphisms and multiplex developmental disorders. Fluorescence in situ hybridization is the current method of choice for the diagnosis if typical multiple defects and/or symptoms are present. The authors present the history of two patients who were followed-up for minor anomalies and various developmental disorders for several years in the genetic counseling office of the authors, but definitive diagnosis was not established. However, when DNA samples of the two patients were recently tested with array comparative genome hybridization, a diagnostic method which has already been used in their institute for several years, the results indicated deletion of the 11.2 region on the long arm of chromosome 22 in both patients. The authors draw attention to the incidence and wide phenotypic spectrum of the chromosome 22q11 deletion syndrome, and show that its identification can be aided with the novel molecular cytogenetic method available in their laboratory.