Genetic Counseling and Long-Term Surveillance Using a Multidisciplinary Approach in von Hippel-Lindau Disease.

BACKGROUND: von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by variants of the VHL tumor suppressor gene (VHL). Early detection and treatment are essential to prevent morbidity and mortality. We evaluated the effectiveness of surveillance strategies and the utility of a VHL clinic with a multidisciplinary team for the first time in Korea. METHODS: The VHL clinic was organized at the Samsung Medical Center in 2011 and consisted of a multidisciplinary team, including an endocrinologist, urologist, general surgeon, neurosurgeon, ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist, and radiologist. Biochemical and imaging surveillance and personalized genetic counseling were conducted at the VHL clinic and patients were referred to the necessary departments upon detection of disease manifestation. We divided the patients in three groups (I-III) based on their compliance to VHL clinic attendance. RESULTS: Between 2011 and 2018, 50 VHL patients were identified by VHL molecular analysis and referred to the VHL clinic. Most patients regularly participated in imaging of the central nervous system (43/50, 86.0%) and of the abdomen (46/50, 92.0%). However, there were differences in compliance to determination of the catecholamine level, audiometry, and ophthalmic examination among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: We present the results of using a multidisciplinary team approach and showed that the VHL clinic strategy is useful for the comprehensive surveillance and management of VHL disease. We hope that VHL clinics will be widely set up in hospitals to improve prognosis in patients with VHL.

Comparison of the clinical performance of OmniPlex-HPV and GeneFinder HPV for the detection and genotyping of human papillomaviruses in cervical specimens.

PURPOSE: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women is known to promote the development of cervical neoplasia. Specific HPV genotypes are more highly associated with disease, and therefore detection and genotyping of HPV infection is critical for preventing and effectively treating cervical cancer. Consequently, various assays using diverse technologies have been developed to detect HPV genotype. Recently the OmniPlex-HPV and GeneFinder HPV methods, based on PCR and Luminex xMAP liquid bead microarray technologies, were developed for the detection of 40 and 32 HPV genotypes, respectively. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical performance of OmniPlex-HPV and GeneFinder HPV. METHODOLOGY: The study included 300 cytology-confirmed cervical swab specimens. In cases where there was a discrepancy between the two assay results, type-specific direct sequencing was performed. RESULT: We found a high overall agreement between OmniPlex-HPV and GeneFinder HPV for detecting the presence or absence of high-risk HPV (HR HPV) (90.7 %, κ=0.810). However, OmniPlex-HPV showed greater sensitivity than GeneFinder HPV in the identification of multiple genotype-infected samples. Specifically, diagnostic sensitivities for HR HPV positivity in high-grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HSIL) were 100.0 % for OmniPlex-HPV and 96.8 % for GeneFinder HPV. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that OmniPlex-HPV and GeneFinder HPV are highly comparable for the detection and genotyping of HPV, but OmniPlex-HPV displays greater accuracy in cases of multiple HPV infection.

CYP21A2 mutation analysis in Korean patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia using complementary methods: sequencing after long-range PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification assay.

CYP21A2 mutation analysis of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is challenging because of the genomic presence of a homologous CYP21A2 pseudogene and the significant incidence of pseudogene conversion and large deletions. The objective of this study was to accurately analyze the CYP21A2 genotype in Korean CAH patients using a combination of complementary methods. Long-range PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses were performed to confirm valid amplification of CYP21A2 and to detect large gene conversions and deletions before direct sequencing. Multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis was conducted concurrently in 14 CAH-suspected patients and six family members of three patients. We identified 27 CYP21A2 mutant alleles in 14 CAH-suspected patients. The c.293-13A>G (or c.293-13C>G) was the most common mutation, and p.Ile173Asn was the second, identified in 25% and 17.9% of alleles, respectively. A novel frame-shift mutation of c.492delA (p.Glu 164Aspfs*24) was detected. Large deletions were detected by MLPA in 10.7% of the alleles. Mutation studies of the six familial members for three of the patients aided in the identification of haplotypes. In summary, we successfully identified CYP21A2 mutations using both long-range PCR and sequencing and dosage analyses. Our data correspond relatively well with the previously reported mutation spectrum analysis.

Identification and in vivo functional characterization of novel compound heterozygous BMP1 variants in osteogenesis imperfecta.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders that are characterized by susceptibility to bone fractures, and range in severity from a subtle increase in fracture frequency to death in the perinatal period. Most patients have defects in type I collagen biosynthesis with autosomal-dominant inheritance, but many autosomal-recessive genes have been reported. We applied whole-exome sequencing to identify mutations in a Korean OI patient who had an umbilical hernia, frequent fractures, a markedly short stature, delayed motor development, scoliosis, and dislocation of the radial head, with a bowed radius and ulna. We identified two novel variants in the BMP1 gene: c.808A>G and c.1297G>T. The former variant caused a missense change p.(Met270Val) and the latter variant caused the skipping of exon 10. The hypofunctional nature of the two variants was demonstrated in a zebrafish assay.

Evaluation of the illumigene C. difficile assay for toxigenic Clostridium difficile detection: a prospective study of 302 consecutive clinical fecal samples.

Toxigenic Clostridium difficile is a major pathogen causing nosocomial diarrhea. Consequently, rapid detection of toxigenic C. difficile is very important in clinical laboratories. The illumigene C. difficile DNA amplification assay (illumigene; Meridian Bioscience, Inc.) is a rapid method that detects the toxin A gene (tcdA) by loop-mediated isothermal amplification. In the present study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the illumigene assay using 302 consecutive stool specimens in comparison with the VIDAS C. difficile A&B enzyme-linked fluorescent immunoassay (VIDAS-CDAB; bioMérieux). Toxigenic culture was used as the reference method. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the illumigene assay were 88.1%, 96.7%, 86.7%, and 97.1%, respectively, while those of the VIDAS-CDAB assay were 40.4%, 98.8%, 87.5%, and 88.5%, respectively. It is of note that use of a combination of the illumigene and VIDAS-CDAB assays did not improve any of the 4 evaluated parameters (88.1%, 95.5%, 82.5%, and 97.1%, respectively). The illumigene assay showed limits of detection of 250 and 11,467 CFU/mL for ATCC 9688 (tcdA+, tcdB+, cdtB-) and ATCC 43598 (tcdA-, tcdB+, cdtB-) reference strains, respectively, and there was no cross-reactivity with 8 frequently isolated bacterial species. In conclusion, the illumigene assay might be a useful method for rapid detection of toxigenic C. difficile in clinical laboratories. Additionally, the VIDAS-CDAB assay seems unnecessary if the illumigene assay is used.