Extracranial midline defects in a patient with craniofrontonasal syndrome with a novel EFNB1 mutation.

We report a female patient with craniofrontonasal syndrome (CFNS) who in addition showed other cranial and extracranial midline defects including partial corpus callosum agenesis, ocular melanocytosis, pigmentary glaucoma, duplex collecting system, uterus didelphys, and septate vagina. She was found to have a novel pathogenic variant in exon 5 of EFNB1, c.646G>T (p.Glu216*) predicted to cause premature protein truncation. From our review, we found at least 39 published CFNS patients with extracranial midline defects, comprising congenital diaphragmatic hernia, congenital heart defects, umbilical hernia, hypospadias, and less frequently, sacrococcygeal teratomas, and internal genital anomalies in females. These findings support that the EFNB1 mutations have systemic consequences disrupting morphogenetic events at the extracranial midline. Though these are not rigorously included as midline defects, we found at least 10 CFNS patients with congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract, all females. Additionally, uterus didelphys and ocular melanocytosis observed in our patient are proposed also as a previously unreported EFNB1-related midline defects. In addition, this case may be useful for considering the intentional search for genitourinary anomalies in future patients with CFNS, which will be helpful to define their frequency in this entity.

Co-occurrence of hemiscrotal agenesis with cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita and hydronephrosis affecting the same side of the body.

To our knowledge, there are nine previous reports of patients with congenital scrotal agenesis (CSA), seven of which were bilateral, and unilateral in two, also named as hemiscrotal agenesis (HSA). Here, we report a male infant with the previously undescribed co-occurrence of HSA with cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita (CMTC), and hydronephrosis due to vesicoureteral reflux, all of them on the left side. CMTC is a segmental vascular malformation usually attributed to mosaicism of a postzygotic mutation, whereas the mechanisms in the CSA involve a failure on the labioscrotal fold (LSF) development due to a localized 5α-reductase deficiency and/or androgen insensitivity. Since the skin with HSA was affected also by CMTC and by the fact that it exhibited lack of response to the topical testosterone treatment, all this suggests to us an androgen insensitivity mosaicism in our patient restricted to the left LSF, because skin with intact androgen receptors normally shows some type of response. Since CSA and/or HSA have been also seen in patients with PHACES, popitleal pterygium syndrome, or as part of a recently proposed familial entity with CSA (or agenesis of labia majora as its female counterpart), developmental delay, visual impairment, and moderate hearing loss, further reports could confirm this manifest genetic heterogeneity, highly evocative of somatic mosaicism in our patient.

Holoprosencephaly and genitourinary anomalies in fetal methotrexate syndrome.

Prenatal exposure to methotrexate (MTX) in the first trimester may lead to fetal death, and surviving children have increased risks for cranial dysostosis, dysmorphic facies, skeletal malformations, limb defects, growth retardation, and, in some cases, developmental delay, a pattern of defects recognized as fetal MTX syndrome (FMS). We report on a male infant who, in addition to severe FMS, showed previously undescribed central nervous system (CNS) and genitourinary anomalies that contributed to the further delineation. The propositus was born to a G2, 20-year-old mother with an irregular menstrual history. The unplanned pregnancy was complicated by oral MTX treatment (5 mg/day) for suspected systemic lupus erythematosus for 14 days at the 5th week post-conception, as dated by the first trimester sonogram. In addition to the typical features of the FMS, our propositus exhibited congenital penile curvature, vesicoureteral reflux, hydronephrosis, and severe CNS anomalies including semilobar holoprosencephaly (HPE). A single previous report of lobar-type HPE in an infant with FMS led us to confirm that the HPE observed in the propositus is a feature attributable to MTX teratogenicity, although the exact mechanisms of the HPE production need to be further elucidated. Also, this case serves to highlight the presence of genitourinary anomalies in patients with FMS, a fact that requires intentional searches in future patients in order to confirm this as being characteristic of the entity.

Atypical parasitic ischiopagus conjoined twins.

Occurrence of asymmetrical or parasitic conjoined twins (CT) is rare, and currently they are classified analogically to the common unions of symmetrical CT. The authors report on an infant with a parasitic third limb attached to the left lateral aspect of the autosite trunk, in whom male gonadal tissue was found histologically. Parasite parts included complete left lower limb, hemipelvis, lumbosacral vertebral column, spinal cord, and one kidney with ureter and adrenal gland. Autosite anomalies comprised a small left diaphragmatic defect, omphalocele, exstrophy of cloaca, and lumbar meningomyelocele. The authors considered this case to be a rare atypical parasitic ischiopagus CT. The differential diagnosis of the type of twining and other entities with caudal duplications is analyzed briefly.

Lumbopedal skin pedicle in an infant with the amniotic band syndrome: a Disorganization-like defect?

A female infant is presented in whom anomalies not commonly seen in amniotic band syndrome (ABS) included non-anatomic lumbopedal union by a skin pedicle, anorectal malformation, meningocele, vertebral segmentation defects, longitudinal limb defects, vestigial feet and skin papillae. The unusual, non-band related malformations in the proposita showed similarity to the mouse mutant Disorganization (Ds). This report, supports the suggestion that Ds-like mutations may cause some cases with apparent ABS associated with "skin pedicles".