U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination

Thickened helices

MedGen UID:
325240
Concept ID:
C1837732
Finding
Synonyms: Thick helices; Thick helix; Thickened helix; Thickening of the helices
 
HPO: HP:0000391

Definition

Increased thickness of the helix of the ear. [from HPO]

Term Hierarchy

CClinical test,  RResearch test,  OOMIM,  GGeneReviews,  VClinVar  
  • Thickened helices

Conditions with this feature

Midface hypoplasia, obesity, developmental delay, and neonatal hypotonia
MedGen UID:
325238
Concept ID:
C1837730
Disease or Syndrome
Chromosome 1p36 deletion syndrome
MedGen UID:
334629
Concept ID:
C1842870
Disease or Syndrome
The constitutional deletion of chromosome 1p36 results in a syndrome with multiple congenital anomalies and mental retardation (Shapira et al., 1997). Monosomy 1p36 is the most common terminal deletion syndrome in humans, occurring in 1 in 5,000 births (Shaffer and Lupski, 2000; Heilstedt et al., 2003). See also neurodevelopmental disorder with or without anomalies of the brain, eye, or heart (NEDBEH; 616975), which shows overlapping features and is caused by heterozygous mutation in the RERE gene (605226) on proximal chromosome 1p36. See also Radio-Tartaglia syndrome (RATARS; 619312), caused by mutation in the SPEN gene (613484) on chromosome 1p36, which shows overlapping features.
Noonan syndrome 4
MedGen UID:
339908
Concept ID:
C1853120
Disease or Syndrome
Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterized by characteristic facies, short stature, congenital heart defect, and developmental delay of variable degree. Other findings can include broad or webbed neck, unusual chest shape with superior pectus carinatum and inferior pectus excavatum, cryptorchidism, varied coagulation defects, lymphatic dysplasias, and ocular abnormalities. Although birth length is usually normal, final adult height approaches the lower limit of normal. Congenital heart disease occurs in 50%-80% of individuals. Pulmonary valve stenosis, often with dysplasia, is the most common heart defect and is found in 20%-50% of individuals. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, found in 20%-30% of individuals, may be present at birth or develop in infancy or childhood. Other structural defects include atrial and ventricular septal defects, branch pulmonary artery stenosis, and tetralogy of Fallot. Up to one fourth of affected individuals have mild intellectual disability, and language impairments in general are more common in NS than in the general population.
Blepharophimosis - intellectual disability syndrome, Verloes type
MedGen UID:
347661
Concept ID:
C1858538
Disease or Syndrome
Blepharophimosis-intellectual disability syndrome, Verloes type is a rare, genetic multiple congenital anomalies/dysmorphic syndrome characterized by congenital microcephaly, severe epilepsy with hypsarrhythmia, adducted thumbs, abnormal genitalia, and normal thyroid function. Hypotonia, moderate to severe psychomotor delay, and characteristic facial dysmorphism (including round face with prominent cheeks, blepharophimosis, large, bulbous nose with wide alae nasi, posteriorly rotated ears with dysplastic conchae, narrow mouth, cleft palate, and mild micrognathia) are additional characteristic features.
Noonan syndrome 3
MedGen UID:
349931
Concept ID:
C1860991
Disease or Syndrome
Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterized by characteristic facies, short stature, congenital heart defect, and developmental delay of variable degree. Other findings can include broad or webbed neck, unusual chest shape with superior pectus carinatum and inferior pectus excavatum, cryptorchidism, varied coagulation defects, lymphatic dysplasias, and ocular abnormalities. Although birth length is usually normal, final adult height approaches the lower limit of normal. Congenital heart disease occurs in 50%-80% of individuals. Pulmonary valve stenosis, often with dysplasia, is the most common heart defect and is found in 20%-50% of individuals. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, found in 20%-30% of individuals, may be present at birth or develop in infancy or childhood. Other structural defects include atrial and ventricular septal defects, branch pulmonary artery stenosis, and tetralogy of Fallot. Up to one fourth of affected individuals have mild intellectual disability, and language impairments in general are more common in NS than in the general population.
Weill-Marchesani syndrome 2, dominant
MedGen UID:
358388
Concept ID:
C1869115
Disease or Syndrome
Weill-Marchesani syndrome (WMS) is a connective tissue disorder characterized by abnormalities of the lens of the eye, short stature, brachydactyly, joint stiffness, and cardiovascular defects. The ocular problems, typically recognized in childhood, include microspherophakia (small spherical lens), myopia secondary to the abnormal shape of the lens, ectopia lentis (abnormal position of the lens), and glaucoma, which can lead to blindness. Height of adult males is 142-169 cm; height of adult females is 130-157 cm. Autosomal recessive WMS cannot be distinguished from autosomal dominant WMS by clinical findings alone.
Noonan syndrome 5
MedGen UID:
370589
Concept ID:
C1969057
Disease or Syndrome
Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterized by characteristic facies, short stature, congenital heart defect, and developmental delay of variable degree. Other findings can include broad or webbed neck, unusual chest shape with superior pectus carinatum and inferior pectus excavatum, cryptorchidism, varied coagulation defects, lymphatic dysplasias, and ocular abnormalities. Although birth length is usually normal, final adult height approaches the lower limit of normal. Congenital heart disease occurs in 50%-80% of individuals. Pulmonary valve stenosis, often with dysplasia, is the most common heart defect and is found in 20%-50% of individuals. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, found in 20%-30% of individuals, may be present at birth or develop in infancy or childhood. Other structural defects include atrial and ventricular septal defects, branch pulmonary artery stenosis, and tetralogy of Fallot. Up to one fourth of affected individuals have mild intellectual disability, and language impairments in general are more common in NS than in the general population.
Pitt-Hopkins syndrome
MedGen UID:
370910
Concept ID:
C1970431
Disease or Syndrome
Pitt-Hopkins syndrome (PTHS) is characterized by significant developmental delays with moderate-to-severe intellectual disability and behavioral differences, characteristic facial features, and episodic hyperventilation and/or breath-holding while awake. Speech is significantly delayed and most individuals are nonverbal with receptive language often stronger than expressive language. Other common findings are autism spectrum disorder symptoms, sleep disturbance, stereotypic hand movements, seizures, constipation, and severe myopia.
Noonan syndrome 7
MedGen UID:
462320
Concept ID:
C3150970
Disease or Syndrome
Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterized by characteristic facies, short stature, congenital heart defect, and developmental delay of variable degree. Other findings can include broad or webbed neck, unusual chest shape with superior pectus carinatum and inferior pectus excavatum, cryptorchidism, varied coagulation defects, lymphatic dysplasias, and ocular abnormalities. Although birth length is usually normal, final adult height approaches the lower limit of normal. Congenital heart disease occurs in 50%-80% of individuals. Pulmonary valve stenosis, often with dysplasia, is the most common heart defect and is found in 20%-50% of individuals. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, found in 20%-30% of individuals, may be present at birth or develop in infancy or childhood. Other structural defects include atrial and ventricular septal defects, branch pulmonary artery stenosis, and tetralogy of Fallot. Up to one fourth of affected individuals have mild intellectual disability, and language impairments in general are more common in NS than in the general population.
Geleophysic dysplasia 1
MedGen UID:
479777
Concept ID:
C3278147
Disease or Syndrome
Geleophysic dysplasia, a progressive condition resembling a lysosomal storage disorder, is characterized by short stature, short hands and feet, progressive joint limitation and contractures, distinctive facial features, progressive cardiac valvular disease, and thickened skin. Intellect is normal. Major findings are likely to be present in the first year of life. Cardiac, respiratory, and lung involvement result in death before age five years in approximately 33% of individuals with ADAMTSL2-related geleophysic dysplasia.
Cognitive impairment - coarse facies - heart defects - obesity - pulmonary involvement - short stature - skeletal dysplasia syndrome
MedGen UID:
894554
Concept ID:
C4085597
Disease or Syndrome
CHOPS syndrome is a disorder involving multiple abnormalities that are present from birth (congenital). The name "CHOPS" is an abbreviation for a list of features of the disorder including cognitive impairment, coarse facial features, heart defects, obesity, lung (pulmonary) involvement, short stature, and skeletal abnormalities.\n\nChildren with CHOPS syndrome have intellectual disability and delayed development of skills such as sitting and walking. Characteristic facial features include a round face; thick hair; thick eyebrows that grow together in the middle (synophrys); wide-set, bulging eyes with long eyelashes; a short nose; and down-turned corners of the mouth.\n\nMost affected individuals are born with a heart defect called patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). The ductus arteriosus is a connection between two major arteries, the aorta and the pulmonary artery. This connection is open during fetal development and normally closes shortly after birth. However, the ductus arteriosus remains open, or patent, in babies with PDA. If untreated, this heart defect causes infants to breathe rapidly, feed poorly, and gain weight slowly; in severe cases, it can lead to heart failure. Multiple heart abnormalities have sometimes been found in children with CHOPS syndrome. In addition to PDA, affected individuals may have ventricular septal defect, which is a defect in the muscular wall (septum) that separates the right and left sides of the heart's lower chamber.\n\nPeople with CHOPS syndrome have abnormalities of the throat and airways that cause momentary cessation of breathing while asleep (obstructive sleep apnea). These abnormalities can also cause affected individuals to breathe food or fluids into the lungs accidentally, which can lead to a potentially life-threatening bacterial lung infection (aspiration pneumonia) and chronic lung disease. Affected individuals are shorter than more than 97 percent of their peers and are overweight for their height. They also have skeletal differences including unusually short fingers and toes (brachydactyly) and abnormally-shaped spinal bones (vertebrae).\n\nOther features that can occur in CHOPS syndrome include a small head size (microcephaly); hearing loss; clouding of the lens of the eye (cataract); a single, horseshoe-shaped kidney; and, in affected males, undescended testes (cryptorchidism).
Intellectual disability, X-linked, syndromic 33
MedGen UID:
895979
Concept ID:
C4225418
Disease or Syndrome
X-linked syndromic intellectual developmental disorder-33 (MRXS33) is an X-linked recessive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by delayed psychomotor development, intellectual disability, and characteristic facial features (summary by O'Rawe et al., 2015).
SIN3A-related intellectual disability syndrome due to a point mutation
MedGen UID:
934771
Concept ID:
C4310804
Disease or Syndrome
Witteveen-Kolk syndrome (WITKOS) is an autosomal dominant disorder with characteristic distinctive facial features, microcephaly, short stature, and mildly impaired intellectual development with delayed cognitive and motor development and subtle anomalies on MRI-brain imaging (summary by Balasubramanian et al., 2021).
Noonan syndrome-like disorder with loose anagen hair 2
MedGen UID:
1376945
Concept ID:
C4479577
Disease or Syndrome
An inherited condition caused by autosomal dominant mutation(s) in the PPP1CB gene, encoding serine/threonine-protein phosphatase PP1-beta catalytic subunit. The condition is characterized by facial features similar to those seen in Noonan syndrome but may also include short stature, cognitive deficits, relative macrocephaly, small posterior fossa resulting in Chiari I malformation, hypernasal voice, cardiac defects, and ectodermal abnormalities, which typically presents as slow-growing, sparse, and/or unruly hair.
Congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract syndrome with or without hearing loss, abnormal ears, or developmental delay
MedGen UID:
1612119
Concept ID:
C4539968
Disease or Syndrome
CAKUTHED is an autosomal dominant highly pleiotropic developmental disorder characterized mainly by variable congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract, sometimes resulting in renal dysfunction or failure, dysmorphic facial features, and abnormalities of the outer ear, often with hearing loss. Most patients have global developmental delay (summary by Heidet et al., 2017 and Slavotinek et al., 2017).
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol biosynthesis defect 18
MedGen UID:
1648478
Concept ID:
C4748357
Disease or Syndrome
Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy-95 (DEE95) is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by severely impaired global development, hypotonia, weakness, ataxia, coarse facial features, and intractable seizures. More variable features may include abnormalities of the hands and feet, inguinal hernia, and feeding difficulties. The disorder is part of a group of similar neurologic disorders resulting from biochemical defects in the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) biosynthetic pathway (summary by Nguyen et al., 2018). For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of DEE, see 308350. For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of GPI biosynthesis defects, see GPIBD1 (610293).
Neurodevelopmental disorder with microcephaly and dysmorphic facies
MedGen UID:
1719418
Concept ID:
C5394218
Disease or Syndrome
Nabais Sa-de Vries syndrome type 1 (NSDVS1) is characterized by global developmental delay apparent from infancy, variable behavioral abnormalities, microcephaly, and dysmorphic facial features, including round face, small palpebral fissures, highly arched eyebrows, and short nose. The severity is variable (summary by Nabais Sa et al., 2020).
Agenesis of corpus callosum, cardiac, ocular, and genital syndrome
MedGen UID:
1718475
Concept ID:
C5394523
Disease or Syndrome
Agenesis of corpus callosum, cardiac, ocular, and genital syndrome (ACOGS) is a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by global developmental delay and/or intellectual disability, corpus callosum agenesis or hypoplasia, craniofacial dysmorphisms, and ocular, cardiac, and genital anomalies (Accogli et al., 2019).
Vertebral hypersegmentation and orofacial anomalies
MedGen UID:
1746640
Concept ID:
C5436851
Disease or Syndrome
Vertebral hypersegmentation and orofacial anomalies (VHO) is characterized by supernumerary cervical, thoracic, and/or lumbar vertebrae, in association with supernumerary ribs. Most patients also exhibit orofacial clefting and ear anomalies (Cox et al., 2019).
Neurodevelopmental disorder with dysmorphic facies and thin corpus callosum
MedGen UID:
1790413
Concept ID:
C5551361
Disease or Syndrome
Neurodevelopmental disorder with dysmorphic facies and thin corpus callosum (NEDDFAC) is characterized by global developmental delay, impaired intellectual development with poor or absent speech and language, and dysmorphic facial features. Brain imaging tends to show thin corpus callosum and decreased white matter volume. Additional features such as seizures, cardiac defects, and behavioral abnormalities may also occur. The phenotype is variable (summary by Bina et al., 2020).
Congenital disorder of glycosylation, type 2v
MedGen UID:
1794181
Concept ID:
C5561971
Disease or Syndrome
Congenital disorder of glycosylation type 2v (CDG2V) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by neurodevelopmental delay and variable facial dysmorphisms (Polla et al., 2021).
DYRK1A-related intellectual disability syndrome
MedGen UID:
1799566
Concept ID:
C5568143
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
DYRK1A syndrome is characterized by intellectual disability including impaired speech development, autism spectrum disorder including anxious and/or stereotypic behavior problems, and microcephaly. Affected individuals often have a clinically recognizable phenotype including a typical facial gestalt, feeding problems, seizures, hypertonia, gait disturbances, and foot anomalies. The majority of affected individuals function in the moderate-to-severe range of intellectual disability; however, individuals with mild intellectual disability have also been reported. Other medical concerns relate to febrile seizures in infancy; the development of epilepsy with seizures of the atonic, absence, and generalized myoclonic types; short stature; and gastrointestinal problems. Ophthalmologic, urogenital, cardiac, and/or dental anomalies have been reported.
Tessadori-Van Haaften neurodevelopmental syndrome 3
MedGen UID:
1824083
Concept ID:
C5774310
Disease or Syndrome
Tessadori-Bicknell-van Haaften neurodevelopmental syndrome-3 (TEBIVANED3) is characterized by global developmental delay with poor overall growth, impaired intellectual development, and speech difficulties. More variable features include hypotonia, microcephaly, and dysmorphic facies. The severity and manifestations of the disorder are highly variable (Tessadori et al., 2022). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of Tessadori-Bicknell-van Haaften neurodevelopmental disorder, see TEBIVANED1 (619758).

Professional guidelines

PubMed

Ke HP, Jiang HL, Lv YS, Huang YZ, Liu RR, Chen XL, Du ZF, Luo YQ, Xu CM, Fan QH, Zhang XN
Gene 2014 Aug 1;546(1):124-8. Epub 2014 May 24 doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2014.05.048. PMID: 24862219
Pasławski M, Złomaniec J, Bieńko-Baka G
Ann Univ Mariae Curie Sklodowska Med 2004;59(1):417-23. PMID: 16146023
Ege G, Akman H, Kuzucu K, Yildiz S
Clin Radiol 2003 Dec;58(12):990-4. doi: 10.1016/s0009-9260(03)00294-0. PMID: 14654033

Recent clinical studies

Etiology

van Trier DC, van Nierop J, Draaisma JMT, van der Burgt I, Kunst H, Croonen EA, Admiraal RJC
Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2015 Jun;79(6):874-878. Epub 2015 Apr 1 doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2015.03.021. PMID: 25862627

Diagnosis

Kirikae H, Uematsu M, Numata-Uematsu Y, Saijo N, Katata Y, Oikawa Y, Kikuchi A, Yanagi K, Kaname T, Haginoya K, Kure S
Brain Dev 2022 Feb;44(2):148-152. Epub 2021 Sep 24 doi: 10.1016/j.braindev.2021.09.003. PMID: 34579981

Prognosis

Craddock KE, Okur V, Wilson A, Gerkes EH, Ramsey K, Heeley JM, Juusola J, Vitobello A, Dupeyron MB, Faivre L, Chung WK
Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud 2019 Aug;5(4) Epub 2019 Aug 1 doi: 10.1101/mcs.a004200. PMID: 31167805Free PMC Article

Clinical prediction guides

Craddock KE, Okur V, Wilson A, Gerkes EH, Ramsey K, Heeley JM, Juusola J, Vitobello A, Dupeyron MB, Faivre L, Chung WK
Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud 2019 Aug;5(4) Epub 2019 Aug 1 doi: 10.1101/mcs.a004200. PMID: 31167805Free PMC Article

Supplemental Content

Table of contents

    Clinical resources

    Practice guidelines

    • PubMed
      See practice and clinical guidelines in PubMed. The search results may include broader topics and may not capture all published guidelines. See the FAQ for details.

    Consumer resources

    Recent activity

    Your browsing activity is empty.

    Activity recording is turned off.

    Turn recording back on

    See more...