A collaborative approach to the diagnosis of a lethal short limb skeletal dysplasia.

We report a male infant with a lethal short limb Skeletal Dysplasia, born in a District Hospital in the South of Portugal. Local paediatricians investigated clinical and radiographical data. At the Perinatal Pathology Unit of the Egas Moniz hospital the diagnosis of Atelosteogenesis type II was proposed by the Clinical Geneticist and was supported by histopathological findings. Only a collaborative approach turned possible the diagnosis of this unusual entity. Atelosteogenesis type II and Diastrophic Dysplasia are closely related diseases, with similarities in phenotypic and histopathological presentation. Recently, these similarities were extended to molecular levels. The DNA analysis, in progress, will be able to establish a final diagnosis for this affected family.