Pallister-Killian syndrome: case report with pineal tumor.

Pallister-Killian syndrome, an aneuploidy syndrome, comprises a characteristic facial appearance, mental retardation, and multiple other anomalies. It is caused by mosaicism with a supernumerary isochromosome 12p. This chromosomal abnormality has been reported also in human germ cell tumors. We report on a 15-year-old girl with Pallister-Killian syndrome and pineal tumor.

Varadi-Papp syndrome: report of a case.

A case of Varadi-Papp syndrome in a 3-year-old boy whose case has been followed from 8 months of age is described.

Aggressive behavior in patients with Sotos syndrome.

Sotos syndrome is characterized by peculiar facies, prenatal and postnatal overgrowth, and developmental delay. The course of six patients with psychiatric, neurologic, and magnetic resonance imaging evaluations is reported. Three (50%) of the six patients were observed to have a tendency toward aggressiveness, including one who had pyromania.

Hypotonia, congenital nystagmus, ataxia, and abnormal auditory brainstem responses: a report on the first white patient.

A white Italian boy, aged 5 years and 8 months, is reported with failure to thrive, hypotonia, truncal ataxia, psychomotor retardation, and congenital horizontal pendular nystagmus with only waves I and II on auditory brainstem responses. Our patient's clinical picture resembles that previously reported in 10 male Oriental patients. He did not manifest spastic diplegia by the age of 2 years, as did the subjects reported in the literature, but knee-jerk hyperreflexia was evident at the most recent clinical reevaluation. Serial brain MRI studies revealed a cystic brain lesion and peritrigonal hyperintensities with no brainstem abnormalities. To date, no other child with a similar syndrome has been described either in Europe or in America. The clinical features of this condition are consistent and characteristic. A definitive diagnosis is achieved by demonstrating the absence of all waves following wave I or wave II on auditory brainstem responses as early as 3 months of age. Due to the predominance of males, the occurrence in siblings, the early age at onset, the non-progressive course, and the characteristic auditory brainstem response findings, the syndrome may have a genetic origin and be attributable to a dysgenetic brainstem lesion.

Short stature, brachydactyly, nail dysplasia, and mental retardation: further observation of the Tonoki syndrome.

We studied a patient with microcephaly, short stature, type B brachydactyly, nail dysplasia, skeletal anomalies, and mental retardation. The mother of the propositus has brachydactyly of thumbs and a similar physiognomy without mental retardation. This appears to be another observation of the Tonoki syndrome, a distinct autosomal dominant or X-linked clinical entity.

[Melnick-Needles syndrome. Report of a case]. / La sindrome di Melnick-Needles. Descrizione di una paziente.

Melnick-Needles osteodisplasty is a X-linked dominant syndrome characterized by generalized bone dysplasia and abnormal facies. The Authors report on a 13 year old girl affected by severe valgus. At clinical examination the patient showed exophthalmos, full cheeks and micrognathia. Radiological examination revealed sclerosis of the skull base and mastoids, bowed radius and ulna (S-shaped), coxa valga and abnormal vertebral.

[Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. Report of a family]. / Sindrome di Peutz-Jeghers. Descrizione di una famiglia.

The Authors report on the clinical and instrumental findings of a 11 years old patient affected with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, several component of her family were also affected. The Authors confirm clinical heterogeneity of the disease and the importance of a early diagnosis.

Craniofacial anomalies, severe cerebellar hypoplasia, psychomotor and growth delay in a child with congenital hypothyroidism.

We describe a 4-year-old boy affected by congenital hypothyroidism (CH) with the unusual association of brachycephaly, large and poorly structured ears, bilateral convergent strabismus, pectus carinatum and slight scoliosis, psychomotor delay, growth retardation and a severe hypoplasia of the right cerebellar hemisphere and vermis. Given the finding of unilateral cerebellar pathology this unusual association might be explained by an insult in utero--more environmental than genetic. However, to the best of our knowledge, a relationship between CH and cerebellar anomalies has not been previously reported.

Another "new" form, the palagonia type of acrofacial dysostosis in a Sicilian family.

We described another previously apparently unreported form of acrofacial dysostosis (AFD) from Sicily, residing, coincidentally in the same small village as that with the recently delineated Catania AFD. In contra-distinction to the latter, the 4 patients with the Palagonia form of AFD are of normal intelligence, and instead of extensive caries have oligodontia (4), short stature (3), frizzy hair (pili torti) with aplasia cutis verticis (1), mild cutaneous syndactyly of digits 2-5 (4), attenuation of the 4th metacarpals (3/3), unilaterally cleft lip (1), and some vertebral anomalies such as a large atlas (1), mild scoliosis (1), small odontoid process, spina bifida occulta at S1 (1). Casually, this would appear to be an iceberg dominant disorder, with the proposita most severely affected. This could be an X-linked dominant, but more likely an autosomal dominant trait.