Genomic Answers for Kids: Toward more equitable access to genomic testing for rare diseases in rural populations.

Next-generation sequencing has revolutionized the speed of rare disease (RD) diagnoses. While clinical exome and genome sequencing represent an effective tool for many RD diagnoses, there is room to further improve the diagnostic odyssey of many RD patients. One recognizable intervention lies in increasing equitable access to genomic testing. Rural communities represent a significant portion of underserved and underrepresented individuals facing additional barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Primary care providers (PCPs) at local clinics, though sometimes suspicious of a potential benefit of genetic testing for their patients, have significant constraints in pursuing it themselves and rely on referrals to specialists. Yet, these referrals are typically followed by long waitlists and significant delays in clinical assessment, insurance clearance, testing, and initiation of diagnosis-informed care management. Not only is this process time intensive, but it also often requires multiple visits to urban medical centers for which distance may be a significant barrier to rural families. Therefore, providing early, "direct-to-provider" (DTP) local access to unrestrictive genomic testing is likely to help speed up diagnostic times and access to care for RD patients in rural communities. In a pilot study with a PCP clinic in rural Kansas, we observed a minimum 5.5 months shortening of time to diagnosis through the DTP exome sequencing program as compared to rural patients receiving genetic testing through the "traditional" PCP-referral-to-specialist scheme. We share our experience to encourage future partnerships beyond our center. Our efforts represent just one step in fostering greater diversity and equity in genomic studies.

Non-coding region variants upstream of MEF2C cause severe developmental disorder through three distinct loss-of-function mechanisms.

Clinical genetic testing of protein-coding regions identifies a likely causative variant in only around half of developmental disorder (DD) cases. The contribution of regulatory variation in non-coding regions to rare disease, including DD, remains very poorly understood. We screened 9,858 probands from the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) study for de novo mutations in the 5' untranslated regions (5' UTRs) of genes within which variants have previously been shown to cause DD through a dominant haploinsufficient mechanism. We identified four single-nucleotide variants and two copy-number variants upstream of MEF2C in a total of ten individual probands. We developed multiple bespoke and orthogonal experimental approaches to demonstrate that these variants cause DD through three distinct loss-of-function mechanisms, disrupting transcription, translation, and/or protein function. These non-coding region variants represent 23% of likely diagnoses identified in MEF2C in the DDD cohort, but these would all be missed in standard clinical genetics approaches. Nonetheless, these variants are readily detectable in exome sequence data, with 30.7% of 5' UTR bases across all genes well covered in the DDD dataset. Our analyses show that non-coding variants upstream of genes within which coding variants are known to cause DD are an important cause of severe disease and demonstrate that analyzing 5' UTRs can increase diagnostic yield. We also show how non-coding variants can help inform both the disease-causing mechanism underlying protein-coding variants and dosage tolerance of the gene.

Utility of Obtaining a Serum Basic Metabolic Panel in the Setting of a First-Time Nonfebrile Seizure.

New-onset nonfebrile seizures in an otherwise healthy child are common, affecting 25 000 to 40 000 U.S. children annually. We hypothesized seizure-provoking electrolyte disturbances such as hyponatremia, hypoglycemia, and hypocalcemia are uncommon in these children. From January 1, 2009 to May 31, 2009, 358 children aged 29 days to 18 years with a diagnosis code of 780.39 ("other convulsions" including "first time seizure," etc) were included for potential retrospective review. Children with known epilepsy and febrile seizures were excluded. Electrolytes were obtained in nearly all children with a history suggestive of an underlying abnormality (13 of 14, 93%) but also in half of children with a reassuring history (62 of 119, 52%). No child with an unremarkable history and exam was found to have electrolyte abnormalities falling below levels most likely to be associated with acute symptomatic seizures. Electrolytes are unlikely to be abnormal in an otherwise well-appearing child after a first-time nonfebrile seizure.