title: Prevalence of primary cutis verticis gyrata in a psychiatric population: association with chromosomal fragile sites.
abstract: The prevalence of cutis verticis gyrata was studied in a psychiatric institutional population of 494 patients, the majority of whom were mentally retarded or had chronic schizophrenia. Twenty-two subjects (21 males and 1 female) were found to have primary cutis verticis gyrata, yielding a prevalence of about 4.5%. The frequency of the scalp disorder was 11.4% among mentally retarded patients and 1.7% in schizophrenic subjects. A cytogenetic study was performed on patients with primary cutis verticis gyrata. In 9 out of 21 subjects there was evidence of chromosomal fragile sites: 5 patients had fragile sites on the X-chromosome, in 2 there was fragility of chromosome 12 and in 2, fragility of chromosome 9. The fragile X-site is the genetic marker of the 'fragile X-syndrome', a sex-linked inherited disorder often associated with mental retardation and other neuropathological findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schepis
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palazzo
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Cannavo
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ragusa
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barletta
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Spina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D043283:Chromosome Fragile Sites; D002873:Chromosome Fragility; D005260:Female; D005600:Fragile X Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012535:Scalp / Q000002:abnormalities*; D012536:Scalp Dermatoses / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*