Clinical Risk Prediction in Patients With Left Ventricular Myocardial Noncompaction.

Background: Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is a heterogeneous entity with uncertain prognosis.

Objectives: This study sought to develop and validate a prediction model of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and to identify LVNC cases without events during long-term follow-up.

Methods: This is a retrospective longitudinal multicenter cohort study of consecutive patients fulfilling LVNC criteria by echocardiography or cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Beyond the disease itself: A cross-cutting educational initiative for patients and families with rare diseases.

Rare diseases (RDs) as a whole affect a huge number of individuals although each specific condition comprises a low number of individuals. As a consequence, funds allocated to expand research to all conditions are often limited. Several initiatives have emerged to invest more resources for research in RDs, but patients express unmet needs regarding educational initiatives, awareness support, and psychosocial resources.

From gestalt to gene: early predictive dysmorphic features of PMM2-CDG.

Introduction: Phosphomannomutase-2 deficiency (PMM2-CDG) is associated with a recognisable facial pattern. There are no early severity predictors for this disorder and no phenotype-genotype correlation. We performed a detailed dysmorphology evaluation to describe facial gestalt and its changes over time, to train digital recognition facial analysis tools and to identify early severity predictors.

A kidney-disease gene panel allows a comprehensive genetic diagnosis of cystic and glomerular inherited kidney diseases.

Molecular diagnosis of inherited kidney diseases remains a challenge due to their expanding phenotypic spectra as well as the constantly growing list of disease-causing genes. Here we develop a comprehensive approach for genetic diagnosis of inherited cystic and glomerular nephropathies. Targeted next generation sequencing of 140 genes causative of or associated with cystic or glomerular nephropathies was performed in 421 patients, a validation cohort of 116 patients with previously known mutations, and a diagnostic cohort of 207 patients with suspected inherited cystic disease and 98 patients with glomerular disease.

[Comparative genomic hybridisation as a first option in genetic diagnosis: 1,000 cases and a cost-benefit analysis].

Background And Objective: Conventional cytogenetics diagnoses 3-5% of patients with unexplained developmental delay/intellectual disability and/or multiple congenital anomalies. The Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification increases diagnostic rates from between 2.4 to 5.

Heterogeneity of aortic disease severity in patients with Loeys-Dietz syndrome.

Objective: This study aimed to determine aortic disease severity in patients with Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS).

Methods: Thirty-three patients with LDS diagnosed and followed up at our unit were included. After reviewing all family trees, 25 deceased family members with clear clinical suspicion of having had LDS were also included.

A Novel Recurrent Breakpoint Responsible for Rearrangements in the Williams-Beuren Region.

Copy number variants (CNVs) of the Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) 7q11.23 region are responsible for neurodevelopmental disorders with multisystem involvement and variable expressivity. We found 2 patients with a deletion and 1 patient with a duplication in this region sharing a common breakpoint located between the LIMK1 and EIF4H(WBSCR1) genes.

Whole exome sequencing for the identification of a new mutation in TGFB2 involved in a familial case of non-syndromic aortic disease.

Background: Non-syndromic aortic disease (NSAD) is a frequently asymptomatic but potentially lethal disease characterised by familial cases of thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. This monogenic but genetically heterogeneous condition is primarily inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder with low penetrance and variable expression. Mutations in ACTA2, TGFBR1, TGFBR2, MYH11, SMAD3, MYLK, and FBN1 genes have been described but still, there are many unresolved familial cases.

Expanding the scope of cinchona alkaloid-catalyzed enantioselective alpha-aminations of oxindoles: a versatile approach to optically active 3-amino-2-oxindole derivatives.

A cinchona alkaloid-catalyzed, highly enantioselective, alpha-amination of oxindoles has been developed. The reaction is general, operationally simple, and affords the desired products in high yields with good to excellent enantioselectivity. Significantly, this study provides a general catalytic method for the construction of a C-N bond at the C3 position of oxindoles as well as for the creation of a nitrogen-containing, tetrasubstituted chiral center.