Autosomal recessive ectodermal dysplasia: I. An undescribed dysplasia/malformation syndrome.

We describe 27 individuals of 7 families related to each other with high probability who showed manifestations of ectodermal dysplasia and other anomalies affecting females as severely as males with variable expressivity. All parents were normal. These families were detected in a relatively isolated and inbred population with very small neighbouring communities from a Caribbean Sea island, Margarita Island, in Northeastern Venezuela (Nueva Esparta State).

A new syndrome with distinct facial and auricular malformations and dominant inheritance.

We report on a mother and son with high forehead; elongated and flattened face; arched, sparse eyebrows; short palpebral fissures; telecanthus; long nose and hypoplastic nostrils; long philtrum; microstomia; high, narrow palate; nasal speech; chin dimples; and a highly unusual bilateral auricular malformation. Intelligence and hearing are normal, and there is no "whistling" face or deviation of fingers. Although resembling in some ways the Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, this phenotype most likely represents a new malformation syndrome, either autosomal dominant or X-linked dominant.