Cardiomyopathy in Coffin-Lowry syndrome.

Coffin-Lowry syndrome (CLS) is a rare but well-documented X-linked disorder characterized by small size, developmental delay/mental retardation, and characteristic facial and skeletal findings in affected males. The phenotype in affected females is far more variable and can include developmental differences, obesity, and characteristic facial and skeletal differences. Cardiac anomalies are reported in less than 20% of affected males, with cardiomyopathy being one of the rare but reported complications of this disorder. However, cardiomyopathy is not well characterized in CLS. Here, we report on a 14-year-old boy with physical and developmental findings consistent with CLS who presented with a relatively sudden onset of signs of congestive heart failure due to a restrictive cardiomyopathy; an endomyocardial biopsy demonstrated non-specific hypertrophic myocyte alterations consistent with cardiomyopathy. This is the first description of the histology and electron microscopy of cardiomyopathy in CLS.

Oculoauriculofrontonasal syndrome (OAFNS) in a nine-month-old male.

We report a nine-month-old Caucasian male with features seen in oculoauriculovertebral spectrum (OAVS) and frontonasal dysplasia sequence (FND) born to normal, non-consanguineous parents and review the literature. His malformations included a left pre-auricular skin tag, severely hypoplastic right pinna without an external canal, severely everted and hypoplastic left upper eyelid, bilateral cleft lip and palate, bifid broad nasal tip, ocular hypertelorism, micrognathia, hypoplastic mandible, an extra cervical rib on the left, hemivertebrae at T3-4, agenesis of the posterior corpus callosum with a midline lipoma, and an extra renal pelvis. This constellation of anomalies is consistent with the diagnosis of oculoauriculofrontonasal syndrome (OAFNS) which appears to be a distinct condition from either OAVS or FND but with overlapping features.