Refining the clinicopathological pattern of cerebral proliferative glomeruloid vasculopathy (Fowler syndrome): report of 16 fetal cases.

Cerebral proliferative glomeruloid vasculopathy (PGV) is a severe disorder of brain angiogenesis, resulting in abnormally thickened and aberrant perforating vessels, forming glomeruloids with inclusion-bearing endothelial cells. This peculiar vascular malformation was delineated by Fowler in 1972 as a stereotyped lethal fetal phenotype associating hydranencephaly-hydrocephaly with limb deformities, called Fowler syndrome (FS) or "proliferative vasculopathy and hydranencephaly-hydrocephaly" or "encephaloclastic proliferative vasculopathy" (OMIM#225790). In PGV, the disruptive impact of vascular malformation on the developing central nervous system (CNS) is now well admitted. However, molecular mechanisms of abnormal angiogenesis involving the CNS vasculature exclusively remain unknown, as no genes have been localized nor identified to date. We observed the pathognomonic FS vascular malformation in 16 fetuses, born to eight families, four consanguineous and four non-consanguineous. A diffuse form of PGV affecting the entire CNS and resulting in classical FS in 14 cases, can be contrasted to two cases with focal forms, confined to restricted territories of the CNS. Interestingly in PGV, immunohistological response to a marker of pericytes (SMA, Smooth in PGV Muscle Actin), was drastically reduced as compared to a match control. Our studies has expanded the description of FS to additional phenotypes, that could be called Fowler-like syndromes and suggest that the pathogenesis of PGV may be related to abnormal pericyte-dependent remodelling of the CNS vasculature, during CNS angiogenesis. Gene identification will determine the molecular basis of PGV and will help to know whether the Fowler-like phenotypes are due to the same underlying molecular mechanisms.

Molecular heterogeneity in fetal forms of type II lissencephaly.

Type II lissencephaly (type II LIS) is a group of autosomal recessive congenital muscular dystrophies (CMD) associated with defects in alpha-DG O-glycosylation, which comprises Walker-Warburg syndrome, Fukuyama cerebral and muscular dystrophy, or muscle-eye-brain disease. The most severe forms of these diseases often have a fetal presentation and lead to a pregnancy termination. We report here the first molecular study on fetal type II LIS in a series of 47 fetuses from 41 unrelated families. Sequencing of the different genes known to be involved in alpha-DG O-glycosylation allowed the molecular diagnosis in 22 families: involvement of POMT1 was demonstrated in 32% of cases, whereas POMGNT1 and POMT2 were incriminated in 15% and in 7% of cases, respectively. We found 30 different mutations in these three genes, 25 were described herein for the first time, 15 in POMT1, and five in POMT2 and POMGNT1. Despite sequencing of FKRP, FCMD, and LARGE, no definitive molecular diagnosis could be made for the other half of our cases. Preliminary results concerning genotype-phenotype correlations show that the choice of the first gene sequenced should depend on the clinical severity of the type II LIS; POMT1 and POMT2 for severest clinical picture and POMGNT1 for milder disease. The other genes, FKRP, FCMD, and LARGE, seem not to be implicated in the fetal form of CMD.

Nosology of lysosomal glycogen storage diseases without in vitro acid maltase deficiency. Delineation of a neonatal form.

We describe a boy with an early lethal hypertrophic vacuolar cardiomyopathy of neonatal onset. Abnormal intra- and extralysosomal glycogen storage disease was demonstrated in heart and skeletal muscles. Glycogen content was twice the normal in muscles and over 3-fold the normal in the heart. In this organ, over 50% of the intracellular space was occupied by glycogen and possibly oligosaccharides, as demonstrated by the quantitative morphometric analysis of electron micrographs. The activity of acid alpha-glucosidase was increased in the heart, skeletal muscles, and liver, but was normal in leukocytes. A review of the 11 previously published pedigrees of lysosomal glycogen storage disease with normal in vitro alpha-glucosidase activity allows the delineation of three clinical entities: juvenile and neonatal pseudo-Pompe diseases and partial Pompe disease. Partial Pompe disease, due to the tissue-specific absence of acid alpha-glucosidase, was observed in a single patient. The most common form is the late-onset pseudo-Pompe disease, which is characterized by severe cardiomyopathy and mild myopathy appearing in the second or third decade, prominent arrhythmia with Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, and sometimes mental retardation. Patients reported as suffering from Antopol disease probably belong to this group. Dominant inheritance (autosomal or X linked) is likely in most families. The present report appears to be the first one to describe a rapidly fatal neonatal form of lysosomal glycogenosis without acid maltase deficiency. The mode of inheritance of this form is not known. Differential diagosis includes Pompe disease (similar histology) and cardiac phosphorylase b kinase deficiency (similar clinical course). The delineation of neonatal pseudo-Pompe disease makes enzymatic confirmation mandatory in each case suspected of Pompe disease.

Osteocraniostenosis.

We report a multiple congenital anomalies (MCA) syndrome in three unrelated fetuses consisting of extremely thin, dense, fishbone-like diaphyses, flared metaphyses, mild micromelic dwarfism, brachydactyly, facial dysmorphism, ocular malformations (microphthalmia, aniridia), cloverleaf skull deformity, and splenic hypoplasia. Histopathological investigations showed abnormalities of the metaphyseal cartilage and adjacent diaphyseal ossification, excessive modelling of the metaphyses, and, in one case, dysplasia of the epiphyseal cartilage. We review three previously reported cases. We suggest the name osteocraniostenosis to describe this radiological and clinical disorder, pinpointing its major clinical and radiological features.

True aneurysm of digital artery in hemophilia. A case report.

A case of a true aneurysm of the radial digital artery of the thumb is presented. Treatment by ligation and excision resulted in relief of symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of true digital aneurysm of the thumb.

Monosomy 11q: report of two familial cases and review of the literature.

We present four children from two families with the typical 11q- phenotype resulting from an unbalanced segregation of a parental translocation. In the first family, the father had a 46,XY,t(5;11)(q24;q23.3) constitution. The father of the three other children had a 46,XY,t(11;17)(q23;p13) translocation. Despite associated partial deletion, three of the children had a typical 11q- phenotype. The fourth one, whose pregnancy was terminated in the second trimester, had a hypoplastic left heart but no other considered gross anomalies. A review of 36 previous cases, including 5 due to translocations (4 familial rearrangements, and 1 of unknown origin) is given with emphasis on the relationships between break-points and phenotype. Undescribed manifestations in our patients include agenesis of corpus callosum adactyly and malrotation of the gut.