12th International CHARGE syndrome conference proceedings.

The CHARGE Syndrome Foundation holds an International conference for families and professionals every other summer. In July, 2015, the 12th meeting was held in Schaumburg, Illinois, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel. Day one of the 4-day conference was dedicated to professionals caring for and researching various aspects of CHARGE, including education, medical management, animal models, and stem cell-based approaches to understanding and treating individuals with CHARGE. Here, we summarize presentations from the meeting, including a synopsis of each of the three different breakout sessions (Medical/Clinical, Basic Science/CHD7, and Education), followed by a list of abstracts and authors for both platform and poster presentations.

Adolescent and adult issues in CHARGE syndrome.

Very little information has been published about adolescents and older individuals with Coloboma, Heart defects, Atresia choanae, Retarded growth and development, Genital hypoplasia, Ear anomalies and deafness (CHARGE) syndrome. This paper describes the results of a study that identifies the unique issues faced by adolescents and adults with CHARGE. Descriptive information was gathered from parents of patients with CHARGE, and/or the patients themselves, about their developmental, medical, educational, and social history. The resulting body of information provides important insights into the prognosis and special needs of individuals with CHARGE, as well as further research questions.

Adaptive behavior in children with CHARGE syndrome.

The "R" in the mnemonic "CHARGE" has historically stood for "Retardation of Growth and Development." Early medical reports describing mental retardation in CHARGE syndrome have not used convincing means to assess this attribute. This article investigated the range of developmental ability in individuals with CHARGE as measured through an adaptive behavior scale, the Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale (ABES) [Carney (1995): The Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale home version technical manual-revised. 126p.], over time. Parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome were surveyed twice over a 4-year time span (N=100, 85) to obtain information about adaptive behavior and specific CHARGE characteristics. There was a significant decline in ABES scores over the 4-year period. However, at Time two, one-half of the children achieved a standard score above 70. Correlation and regression analyses at Time one and Time two revealed negative relationships between (a) age at walking, (b) degree of hearing impairment, (c) degree of visual impairment, and (d) medical involvement variables and the dependent variable, adaptive behavior. In both studies, age at walking was the best predictor of scores. Analysis of variance confirmed that medical involvement and degree of vision impairment were related to adaptive behavior scores because they were also related to age at walking. Age at walking and medical involvement at Time one were found to be significantly different between those who improved and declined in adaptive behavior scores over time. Adaptive behavior scores from both studies revealed a much broader and higher-reaching range of ability for this population than has been previously reported in the literature.