Publications by authors named "Harzallah I"

Objective: The objective of the study is to characterize the pathomechanisms underlying actininopathies. Distal myopathies are a group of rare, inherited muscular disorders characterized by progressive loss of muscle fibers that begin in the distal parts of arms and legs. Recently, variants in a new disease gene, ACTN2, have been shown to cause distal myopathy.

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  • Anorectal malformations (ARMs) are congenital conditions affecting the anus and rectum, often associated with syndromic diseases, meaning they occur alongside other medical issues.
  • A case study discusses a 4-year-old girl with an isolated ARM who later was diagnosed with Coffin-Siris syndrome (CSS) linked to an ARID1B gene mutation, highlighting the rarity of this dual diagnosis.
  • Literature review revealed 10 other cases with both CSS and ARMs, suggesting a significant association between the two, particularly with ARID1A-related forms of CSS.
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  • - Distal myopathies are rare inherited disorders that cause muscle fiber loss starting in the extremities, linked to variants in a new gene previously associated solely with heart conditions, which encodes a key muscle protein.
  • - The study aims to understand the mechanisms behind these disorders by testing various genetic variants in muscle cell models and correlating them with clinical data from affected patients.
  • - Findings indicate that certain genetic changes linked to dominant forms of the disease cause toxic protein aggregates, suggesting these variants should be considered harmful, while also highlighting the need for further research into other potential disease mechanisms.
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  • Congenital erythropoietic porphyria (CEP) is a rare genetic disorder resulting from a deficiency in an enzyme crucial for heme biosynthesis, leading to varying severity levels from life-threatening symptoms at birth to milder issues later on.
  • A study reviewed 20 severe perinatal cases of CEP in France, analyzing their presentation and progression through data collected from medical records.
  • Key findings revealed diverse outcomes: some cases involved severe antenatal symptoms like hydrops fetalis and resulted in early mortality, while others showed acute neonatal distress from severe anemia and required hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which had mixed success rates, highlighting the urgency for improved prenatal and postnatal care strategies.
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Multiple cystic lung diseases comprise a wide range of various diseases, some of them of genetic origin. Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a disease occurring almost exclusively in women, sporadically or in association with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Patients with LAM present with lymphatic complications, renal angiomyolipomas and cystic lung disease responsible for spontaneous pneumothoraces and progressive respiratory insufficiency.

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Tuberous sclerosis is an autosomal dominant disorder almost fully penetrant with highly variable expression. Most cases are de novo and this diagnosis is sometimes considered during prenatal life in case of cardiac tumor, unique or multiple. The couple should be referred to a specialized tertiary prenatal care center for expertise and information.

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  • Chromosomal microarray (CMA) is currently the preferred diagnostic tool for rare disorders, detecting copy number variations (CNVs) with a yield of 10%-20%, though whole exome sequencing (WES) and genome sequencing (WGS) are also available.
  • This study compares the effectiveness of CMA against GATK4 exome sequencing in identifying coding CNVs, utilizing a cohort of 615 individuals for validation and 2418 for a prospective analysis.
  • Results show that WES can improve diagnostic yield by a slight margin when used alongside SNV detection, suggesting it may be more beneficial to reevaluate CNVs before proceeding to WGS after inconclusive CMA or WES results.
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PPFIBP1 encodes for the liprin-β1 protein, which has been shown to play a role in neuronal outgrowth and synapse formation in Drosophila melanogaster. By exome and genome sequencing, we detected nine ultra-rare homozygous loss-of-function variants in 16 individuals from 12 unrelated families. The individuals presented with moderate to profound developmental delay, often refractory early-onset epilepsy, and progressive microcephaly.

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Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a thrombotic microangiopathy that is deadly if not treated promptly. The treatment of choice in patients presenting with TTP is plasma exchanges. However, immunosuppressive therapy and caplacizumab have significantly improved outcomes in TTP.

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We report six cases of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, admitted to intensive care unit (ICU), for whom bone marrow aspirate revealed hemophagocytosis. We compared their clinical presentation and laboratory findings to those that can be encountered during a hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. These observations might evoke a macrophage activation mechanism different from the one encountered in the hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH).

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Objective: Intellectual Disability (ID) represents a neuropsychiatric disorder, which its etiopathogenesis remains insufficiently understood. Mutations in the Aristaless Related Homeobox gene (ARX) have been identified to cause syndromic and nonsyndromic (NS-ID). The most recurrent mutation of this gene is a duplication of 24pb, c.

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Antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies can arise transiently at times of viral diseases. The objective of this work was to evaluate the incidence of aPL antibodies in patients hospitalized in conventional unit for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and confirmed venous thromboembolic events (VTE) associated with aPL antibodies. 41 patients infected with COVID-19 were tested for aPL antibodies.

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We describe a patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and multiple concomitant thromboses occurring on the 9th day of hospital stay. Thromboses were found in distinct zones of the aorta, as well as in the renal, humeral, and pulmonary arteries. The extensive biological workup performed following this catastrophic thrombotic syndrome found no evidence for underlying prothrombotic disease.

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We have recently published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis the presence of lupus anticoagulant (LAC) at high frequency in Covid‐19 patients (1). Different authors had confirmed these results (2). Connell and colleagues had discussed, in the Journal, technical points concerning LAC as well as anti‐phospholipids (aPL) auto‐antibodies detection (3).

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Replacement therapy with plasma-derived or recombinant FVIII and FIX (pdFVIII/pdFIX or rFVIII/rFIX) concentrates is the standard of treatment in patients with haemophilia A and B, respectively. Measurement of factor VIII (FVIII:C) or factor IX (FIX:C) levels can be done by one-stage clotting assay (OSA) or chromogenic substrate assay (CSA). The French study group on the Biology of Hemorrhagic Diseases (a collaborative group of the GFHT and MHEMO network) presents a literature review and proposals for the monitoring of FVIII:C and FIX:C levels in treated haemophilia A and B patients, respectively.

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Purpose: Subependymal giant-cell astrocytomas (SEGAs) are low grade intraventricular tumors typically found in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). The occurrence of SEGA in non TSC patients is very rare and from a genetic point of view these so-called solitary SEGA are thought to result either from somatic mutations in one of the TSC genes (TSC1 or TSC2) limited to the tumor, or be part of a "forme fruste" of TSC with somatic mosaicism. We report on three new cases of solitary SEGA with germline and somatic mutation analysis.

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  • Uniparental disomy (UPD) testing is advised during pregnancy for fetuses with balanced Robertsonian translocations involving chromosomes 14 or 15, which have a low estimated risk of ~0.6-0.8% for UPD.
  • A multicenter study involving 1,747 UPD tests revealed only one case of UPD(14) linked to a maternally inherited translocation, indicating a much lower risk than previously thought.
  • The updated estimated risk of UPD in these cases is about 0.06%, and since the risk of miscarriage from invasive testing is higher, prenatal UPD testing is not recommended, and parents can be reassured.
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