MedGen

Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is characterized by arterial, intestinal, and/or uterine fragility; thin, translucent skin; easy bruising; characteristic facial appearance (thin vermilion of the lips, micrognathia, narrow nose, prominent eyes); and an aged appearance to the extremities, particularly the hands. Vascular dissection or rupture, gastrointestinal perforation, or organ rupture are the presenting signs in most adults with vEDS. Arterial rupture may be preceded by aneurysm, arteriovenous fistulae, or dissection but also may occur spontaneously. The majority (60%) of individuals with vEDS who are diagnosed before age 18 years are identified because of a positive family history. Neonates may present with clubfoot, hip dislocation, limb deficiency, and/or amniotic bands. Approximately half of children tested for vEDS in the absence of a positive family history present with a major complication at an average age of 11 years. Four minor diagnostic features – distal joint hypermobility, easy bruising, thin skin, and clubfeet – are most often present in those children ascertained without a major complication. [from GeneReviews]

Nail-patella syndrome (NPS) (previously referred to as Fong's disease), encompasses the classic clinical tetrad of changes in the nails, knees, and elbows, and the presence of iliac horns. Nail changes are the most constant feature of NPS. Nails may be absent, hypoplastic, or dystrophic; ridged longitudinally or horizontally; pitted; discolored; separated into two halves by a longitudinal cleft or ridge of skin; and thin or (less often) thickened. The patellae may be small, irregularly shaped, or absent. Elbow abnormalities may include limitation of extension, pronation, and supination; cubitus valgus; and antecubital pterygia. Iliac horns are bilateral, conical, bony processes that project posteriorly and laterally from the central part of the iliac bones of the pelvis. Renal involvement, first manifest as proteinuria with or without hematuria, occurs in 30%-50% of affected individuals; end-stage renal disease occurs up to 15% of affected individuals. Primary open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension occur at increased frequency and at a younger age than in the general population. [from GeneReviews]

Leber congenital amaurosis is also associated with other vision problems, including an increased sensitivity to light (photophobia), involuntary movements of the eyes (nystagmus), and extreme farsightedness (hyperopia). The pupils, which usually expand and contract in response to the amount of light entering the eye, do not react normally to light. Instead, they expand and contract more slowly than normal, or they may not respond to light at all.

A specific behavior called Franceschetti's oculo-digital sign is characteristic of Leber congenital amaurosis. This sign consists of affected individuals poking, pressing, and rubbing their eyes with a knuckle or finger. Poking their eyes often results in the sensation of flashes of light called phosphenes. Researchers suspect that this behavior may contribute to deep-set eyes in affected children.

In very rare cases, delayed development and intellectual disability have been reported in people with the features of Leber congenital amaurosis. Because of the visual loss, affected children may become isolated. Providing children with opportunities to play, hear, touch, understand and other early educational interventions may prevent developmental delays in children with Leber congenital amaurosis.

At least 20 genetic types of Leber congenital amaurosis have been described. The types are distinguished by their genetic cause, patterns of vision loss, and related eye abnormalities.

Leber congenital amaurosis, also known as LCA, is an eye disorder that is present from birth (congenital). This condition primarily affects the retina, which is the specialized tissue at the back of the eye that detects light and color. People with this disorder typically have severe visual impairment beginning at birth or shortly afterward. The visual impairment tends to be severe and may worsen over time. [from MedlinePlus Genetics]

Typical Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome (GCPS) is characterized by macrocephaly, widely spaced eyes associated with increased interpupillary distance, preaxial polydactyly with or without postaxial polydactyly, and cutaneous syndactyly. Developmental delay, intellectual disability, or seizures appear to be uncommon manifestations (~<10%) of GCPS and may be more common in individuals with large (>300-kb) deletions that encompass GLI3. Approximately 20% of individuals with GCPS have hypoplasia or agenesis of the corpus callosum. [from GeneReviews]

PLOD1-related kyphoscoliotic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (kEDS) is an autosomal recessive generalized connective tissue disorder characterized by hypotonia, early-onset kyphoscoliosis, and generalized joint hypermobility in association with skin fragility and ocular abnormality. Intelligence is normal. Life span may be normal, but affected individuals are at risk for rupture of medium-sized arteries. Adults with severe kyphoscoliosis are at risk for complications from restrictive lung disease, recurrent pneumonia, and cardiac failure. [from GeneReviews]

RPE65-related Leber congenital amaurosis / early-onset severe retinal dystrophy (RPE65-LCA/EOSRD) is a severe inherited retinal degeneration (IRD) with a typical presentation between birth and age five years. While central vision varies, the hallmark of this disorder is the presence of severe visual impairment with a deceptively preserved retinal structure. Vision is relatively stable in the first decade of life, but begins to decline in adolescence. Most affected individuals are legally blind (visual acuity 20/200 and/or visual fields extending <20 degrees from fixation) by age 20 years. After age 20 years, visual acuity declines further and by the fourth decade all affected individuals are legally blind and many have complete loss of vision (i.e., no light perception). Milder disease phenotypes have been described in individuals with hypomorphic alleles. [from GeneReviews]

Arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS) is characterized by widespread elongation and tortuosity of the aorta and mid-sized arteries as well as focal stenosis of segments of the pulmonary arteries and/or aorta combined with findings of a generalized connective tissue disorder, which may include soft or doughy hyperextensible skin, joint hypermobility, inguinal hernia, and diaphragmatic hernia. Skeletal findings include pectus excavatum or carinatum, arachnodactyly, scoliosis, knee/elbow contractures, and camptodactyly. The cardiovascular system is the major source of morbidity and mortality with increased risk at any age for aneurysm formation and dissection both at the aortic root and throughout the arterial tree, and for ischemic vascular events involving cerebrovascular circulation (resulting in non-hemorrhagic stroke) and the abdominal arteries (resulting in infarctions of abdominal organs). [from GeneReviews]

Autosomal recessive childhood-onset severe retinal dystrophy is a heterogeneous group of disorders affecting rod and cone photoreceptors simultaneously. The most severe cases are termed Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), whereas the less aggressive forms are usually considered juvenile retinitis pigmentosa (Gu et al., 1997). Various intermediate phenotypes between LCA and retinitis pigmentosa are known and are sometimes described as 'early-onset severe rod-cone dystrophy' or 'early-onset retinal degeneration' (Booij et al., 2005). For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of Leber congenital amaurosis, see LCA1 (204000); for retinitis pigmentosa, see 268000; for cone-rod dystrophy, see 120970. [from OMIM]

Brittle cornea syndrome (BCS) is characterized by blue sclerae, corneal rupture after minor trauma, keratoconus or keratoglobus, hyperelasticity of the skin, and hypermobility of the joints (Al-Hussain et al., 2004). It is classified as a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (Malfait et al., 2017). Genetic Heterogeneity of Brittle Cornea Syndrome Brittle cornea syndrome-2 (BCS2; 614170) is caused by mutation in the PRDM5 gene (614161) on chromosome 4q27. [from OMIM]

Leber congenital amaurosis comprises a group of early-onset childhood retinal dystrophies characterized by vision loss, nystagmus, and severe retinal dysfunction. Patients usually present at birth with profound vision loss and pendular nystagmus. Electroretinogram (ERG) responses are usually nonrecordable. Other clinical findings may include high hypermetropia, photodysphoria, oculodigital sign, keratoconus, cataracts, and a variable appearance to the fundus (summary by Chung and Traboulsi, 2009). For a general description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of LCA, see 204000. [from OMIM]

Leber congenital amaurosis comprises a group of early-onset childhood retinal dystrophies characterized by vision loss, nystagmus, and severe retinal dysfunction. Patients usually present at birth with profound vision loss and pendular nystagmus. Electroretinogram (ERG) responses are usually nonrecordable. Other clinical findings may include high hypermetropia, photodysphoria, oculodigital sign, keratoconus, cataracts, and a variable appearance to the fundus (summary by Chung and Traboulsi, 2009). For a general description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of LCA, see 204000. [from OMIM]

Leber congenital amaurosis comprises a group of early-onset childhood retinal dystrophies characterized by vision loss, nystagmus, and severe retinal dysfunction. Patients usually present at birth with profound vision loss and pendular nystagmus. Electroretinogram (ERG) responses are usually nonrecordable. Other clinical findings may include high hypermetropia, photodysphoria, oculodigital sign, keratoconus, cataracts, and a variable appearance to the fundus (summary by Chung and Traboulsi, 2009). For a general description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of LCA, see 204000. [from OMIM]

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. [from GeneReviews]

Early-onset neurodegeneration in the human retina can lead to Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), the most severe human form of inherited photoreceptor-neuron degeneration resulting in congenital blindness, with an incidence of approximately 1 in 80,000 (summary by Koenekoop et al., 2012). NMNAT1 mutations have been observed to cause severe and rapidly progressive macular degeneration, leading to severe central atrophy with an appearance of congenital macular coloboma in the neonatal period, as well as an unusual early-onset atrophy of the optic nerve (Perrault et al., 2012). Some patients present with later onset and milder phenotype than typical LCA (Kumaran et al., 2021). For a general discussion of the phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity in Leber congenital amaurosis, see LCA1 (204000). [from OMIM]

Brittle cornea syndrome (BCS) is characterized by blue sclerae, corneal rupture after minor trauma, keratoconus or keratoglobus, hyperelasticity of the skin, and hypermobility of the joints (Al-Hussain et al., 2004). It is classified as a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (Malfait et al., 2017). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of brittle cornea syndrome, see BCS1 (229200). [from OMIM]

Keratoconus, the most common corneal dystrophy, is a bilateral, noninflammatory progressive corneal ectasia. Clinically, the cornea becomes progressively thin and conical, resulting in myopia, irregular astigmatism, and corneal scarring. The disease usually arises in the teenage years, eventually stabilizing in the third and fourth decades. The incidence of keratoconus is 1 in 2,000 in the general population; it occurs with no ethnic or gender preponderance, and causes significant visual impairment in young adults. No specific treatment exists except to replace the corneal tissue by surgery (corneal transplantation) when visual acuity can no longer be corrected by contact lenses (summary by Dash et al., 2006). Ihalainen (1986) reviewed various conditions with which keratoconus is at times associated. Keratoconus is frequent in cases of amaurosis congenita of Leber (204000). Genetic Heterogeneity of Keratoconus Also see KTCN2 (608932), mapped to 16q22.3-q23.1; KTCN3 (608586), mapped to 3p14-q13; KTCN4 (609271), mapped to 2p24; KTCN5 (614622), mapped to 5q14.1-q21.3; KTCN6 (614623), mapped to 9q34; KTCN7 (614629), mapped to 13q32; KTCN8 (614628), mapped to 14q24; and KTCN9 (617928), caused by mutation in the TUBA3D gene (617878) on 2q21. [from OMIM]

Spinocerebellar ataxia-29 (SCA29) is an autosomal dominant neurologic disorder characterized by onset in infancy of delayed motor development and mild cognitive delay. Affected individuals develop a very slowly progressive or nonprogressive gait and limb ataxia associated with cerebellar atrophy on brain imaging. Additional variable features include nystagmus, dysarthria, and tremor (summary by Huang et al., 2012). For a general discussion of autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia, see SCA1 (164400). [from OMIM]

Distal arthrogryposis type 5 is distinguished from other forms of DA by the presence of ocular abnormalities, typically ptosis, ophthalmoplegia, and/or strabismus, in addition to contractures of the skeletal muscles. Some cases have been reported to have pulmonary hypertension as a result of restrictive lung disease (summary by Bamshad et al., 2009). There are 2 syndromes with features overlapping those of DA5 that are also caused by heterozygous mutation in PIEZO2: distal arthrogryposis type 3 (DA3, or Gordon syndrome; 114300) and Marden-Walker syndrome (MWKS; 248700), which are distinguished by the presence of cleft palate and mental retardation, respectively. McMillin et al. (2014) suggested that the 3 disorders might represent variable expressivity of the same condition. For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of distal arthrogryposis, see DA1A (108120). Genetic Heterogeneity of Distal Arthrogryposis 5 A subtype of DA5 due to mutation in the ECEL1 gene (605896) on chromosome 2q36 has been designated DA5D (615065). See NOMENCLATURE. [from OMIM]

Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy-3 (PPCD3) is a rare disorder involving metaplasia and overgrowth of corneal endothelial cells (Krafchak et al., 2005). In patients with PPCD, these cells manifest in an epithelial morphology and gene expression pattern, produce an aberrant basement membrane, and sometimes spread over the iris and nearby structures in a way that increases the risk for glaucoma. Symptoms range from very aggressive to asymptomatic and nonprogressive, even within the same family. The age of diagnosis is most often in the second or third decade of life. PPCD3 is often associated with corneal steepening, and some patients may be diagnosed with keratoconus before PPCD (Fernandez-Gutierrez et al., 2023). Retrocorneal membranes have been reported, sometimes extending onto the lens (Moroi et al., 2003). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy, see PPCD1 (122000). [from OMIM]

GAPO syndrome is the acronymic designation for a complex of growth retardation, alopecia, pseudoanodontia (failure of tooth eruption), and progressive optic atrophy (Tipton and Gorlin, 1984). Ilker et al. (1999) and Bayram et al. (2014) noted that optic atrophy is not a consistent feature of the disorder. [from OMIM]