Germline alteration has been linked to an increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndromes. As a result, genetic testing, based on NGS, allows us to identify a high number of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) or conflicting interpretation of pathogenicity (CIP) variants. The identification of CIP/VUS is often considered inconclusive and clinically not actionable for the patients' and unaffected carriers' management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in foodstuff involves a human health risk. Edible insects are a precious resource; however, their consumption raises food safety issues. In this study, the occurrence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in laboratory-reared fresh mealworm larvae ( L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman Parechovirus is a common cause of infection occurring especially during the first years of life. It may present with a broad spectrum of manifestations, ranging from a pauci-symptomatic infection to a sepsis-like or central nervous system disease. Aim of this study is to explore the knowledge on Parechovirus meningitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Germline mutations of and are associated with a defined lifetime risk of breast (BC), ovarian (OC) and other cancers. Testing genes is pivotal to assess individual risk, but also to pursue preventive approaches in healthy carriers and tailored treatments in tumor patients. The prevalence of and alterations varies broadly across different geographic regions and, despite data about pathogenic variants among Sicilian families exist, studies specifically addressing eastern Sicily population are lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum (OAVS) is a developmental disorder of craniofacial morphogenesis. Its etiology is unclear, but assumed to be complex and heterogeneous, with contribution of both genetic and environmental factors. We assessed the occurrence of copy number variants (CNVs) in a cohort of 19 unrelated OAVS individuals with congenital heart defect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Poland syndrome (OMIM: 173800) is a disorder in which affected individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of the body, resulting in abnormalities that can affect the chest, breast, shoulder, arm, and hand. The extent and severity of the abnormalities vary among affected individuals.
Main Body: The aim of this work is to provide recommendations for the diagnosis and management of people affected by Poland syndrome based on evidence from literature and experience of health professionals from different medical backgrounds who have followed for several years affected subjects.
Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) is defined as congenital, non-progressive contractures in more than two joints and in multiple body areas, resulting from reduced fetal mobility. So far, more than 400 causative genes for AMC have been identified. Some isolated AMC phenotypes arise as a result of mutations in genes encoding components required for motor neuron structure, function, and myelination, as in the case of ADCY6 encoding the enzyme adenylyl cyclase type 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are genetic diseases characterized by deficient synthesis (CDG type I) and/or abnormal processing (CDG type II) of glycan moieties linked to protein and lipids. The impact of the molecular defects on protein glycosylation and in turn on the clinical phenotypes of patients with CDG is not yet understood. ALG12-CDG is due to deficiency of ALG12 α1,6-mannosyltransferase that adds the eighth mannose residue on the dolichol-PP-oligosaccharide precursor in the endoplasmic reticulum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChromosomal anomalies are well known to be an important cause of infertility, sterility and pregnancy loss. Balanced Reciprocal Translocation Mosaicism (BRTM) is an extremely rare phenomenon, mainly observed in subjects with a normal phenotype accompanied by reproductive failure. To date the mechanism of origin and the incidence of BRTM are poorly defined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe success of cardiac surgery over the past 50 years has increased numbers and median age of survivors with congenital heart disease (CHD). Adults now represent two-thirds of patients with CHD; in the USA alone the number is estimated to exceed 1 million. In this population, many affected women reach reproductive age and wish to have children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe success of cardiac surgery over the past 50 years has increased numbers and median age of survivors with congenital heart disease (CHD). Adults now represent two-thirds of patients with CHD; in the United States alone the number is estimated to exceed 1 million.In this population many affected women reach reproductive age and wish to have children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Campomelic dysplasia and acampomelic campomelic dysplasia (ACD) are allelic disorders due to heterozygous mutations in or around SOX9. Translocations and deletions involving the SOX9 5' regulatory region are rare causes of these disorders, as well as Pierre Robin sequence (PRS) and 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis. Genotype-phenotype correlations are not straightforward due to the complex epigenetic regulation of SOX9 expression during development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: to update the prevalence of congenital anomalies in the Municipality of Gela (Southern Italy), in particular to verify whether the previously reported high prevalence of hypospadias was confirmed.
Design: study on prevalence at birth of congenital anomalies by retrieving information from multiple sources.
Setting And Participants: in the Municipality of Gela it is localized a site of national interest for environmental remediation (SIN).
Intellectual disability affects approximately 2% of the population, with affected males outnumbering affected female, partly due to disturbances involving X-linked genes. To date >90 genes associated with X-linked intellectual disability have been identified and, among these, IL1RAPL1 (interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein-like 1), was first described and mapped to Xp21.3-22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Several authors have reported on pregnancy outcomes associated with enlarged nuchal translucency (NT) in cases of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and thus, thickened NT has been considered a possible early ultrasound scan sign of SMA. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the association between an increased NT and SMA in order to use an ultrasound scan of NT as a possible marker of this disorder.
Material And Methods: This is a retrospective and observational study of women who had a fetus or delivered a baby with SMA following a pregnancy in which NT ultrasound has been performed.
Severe anomalies of the forebrain together with reduction limb anomalies are a rare congenital anomalies association. We report a prenatal diagnosis of acalvaria, anencephaly and thumb agenesis in a voluntary terminated fetus and discuss the role of genetic counseling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: 45,X/46,XY mosaicism is an uncommon chromosomal anomaly with a range of phenotypes from normal males to cases of multiple congenital anomalies.
Materials And Methods: We report a case with associated cleft lip and epispadias prenatally diagnosed with autopsy evidences.
Conclusion: Our case, with an uncommon association of congenital anomalies, stresses the difficulty of prenatal counselling regarding 45,X/46,XY mosaicism and discuss the possible role of sex chromosome genes that may be involved in the pathogenesis of both types of midline defect.
Craniorachischisis is a rare neural tube defect in which both acrania and a complete schisis of the vertebral column are present. Heterotaxy results from failure to establish normal left-right asymmetry during embryonic development and is characterized by a variable group of congenital anomalies that include complex cardiac malformations and situs inversus or situs ambiguous. We report a diamniotic twin pregnancy with two malformed fetuses affected one by craniorachischisis and the other by heterotaxya with paired right-sided viscera, asplenia, and complex congenital heart disease.
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