U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

GTR Home > Conditions/Phenotypes > Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4E

Summary

Congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy (CHN) is characterized clinically by onset of hypotonia at birth, areflexia, distal muscle weakness, and very slow nerve conduction velocities (often less than 10 m/s). Warner et al. (1997, 1998) noted that pathologic findings on sural nerve biopsies show hypomyelination of most or all fibers. Based on these findings, CHN is considered to be a result of congenital impairment in myelin formation. There has been some controversy and difficulty in differentiating congenital hypomyelination from Dejerine-Sottas syndrome (DSS; 145900) because there is considerable overlap in clinical presentation. Based on pathologic findings of sural nerve biopsies (the absence of active myelin breakdown and the paucity of the onion bulbs in CHN and the presence of demyelination/remyelination and an abundance of well-organized onion bulbs in DSS; see Balestrini et al., 1991), CHN is considered to result from a congenital impairment in myelin formation, whereas DSS is thought to be due to aberrant demyelination and subsequent remyelination of the peripheral nerve. There is also variation in the prognosis of patients diagnosed with CHN. In patients with CHN, Harati and Butler (1985) showed correlation of morbidity and mortality with the presence/absence of onion bulbs: patients with few onion bulbs died in early infancy, usually because of difficulty in swallowing and respiration after birth. Patients with atypical onion bulbs survived but were affected with severe motor and sensory impairment. These differences in outcome may represent genetic heterogeneity such that mutations in essential early myelin gene(s) cause a severe phenotype, whereas mutations in other, possibly later acting gene(s), such as MPZ, lead to a less severe outcome. Genetic Heterogeneity of Congenital Hypomyelinating Neuropathy See also CHN2 (618184), caused by mutation in the MPZ gene (159440) on chromosome 1q23; and CHN3 (618186), caused by mutation in the CNTNAP1 gene (602346) on chromosome 17q21. [from OMIM]

Available tests

46 tests are in the database for this condition.

Check Related conditions for additional relevant tests.

Genes See tests for all associated and related genes

  • Also known as: AT591, CMT1D, CMT4E, KROX20, EGR2
    Summary: early growth response 2

Clinical features

Help

Show allHide all

IMPORTANT NOTE: NIH does not independently verify information submitted to the GTR; it relies on submitters to provide information that is accurate and not misleading. NIH makes no endorsements of tests or laboratories listed in the GTR. GTR is not a substitute for medical advice. Patients and consumers with specific questions about a genetic test should contact a health care provider or a genetics professional.