Severe fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy presenting with Coats' disease and mental retardation.

We describe two Norwegian children with fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy in whom Coats' disease, deafness, mental retardation and possible epilepsy were the presenting features. The children have a 4q35 deletion giving a small residual repeat fragment that they have inherited from their father who is a mosaic. Fundal changes consistent with bilateral Coats' disease were found in both children.

Severe phenotype in infantile facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

While much is known about the clinical course of adult FSHD, the third most common inherited muscular dystrophy, data on the "infantile phenotype" and especially on the progression of the disease in children are limited. We have followed a cohort of 7 patients with infantile FSHD for 9-25 years and here report the clinical and genetic findings in this group. Infantile FSHD is relatively rare, amounting to 4% of all of our FSHD patients.