title: Pitt-Rogers-Danks syndrome and Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome are caused by a deletion in the same region on chromosome 4p 16.3.
abstract: Recently, a deletion of chromosome 4pter was found in three patients with Pitt-Rogers-Danks syndrome. We investigated two of these patients, by means of DNA and FISH studies, together with two additional patients with Pitt-Rogers-Danks syndrome, to determine the critical region of the deletion in these patients and to compare this with the critical region in Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. All four patients showed terminal deletions of chromosome 4p of different sizes. One of them appeared to have an unbalanced karyotype caused by a cryptic translocation t(4;8) in the mother, resulting in a deletion of chromosome 4pter and a duplication of chromosome 8pter. The localisation of the Wolf-Hirschhorn critical region has been confined to approximately 1 Mb between D4S43 and D4S115. Our study shows that the deletions in four patients with the Pitt-Rogers-Danks syndrome overlap the Wolf-Hirschhorn critical region and extend beyond this in both directions. This study, combined with the fact that our third patient, who was previously described as a Pitt-Rogers-Danks patient, but who now more closely resembles a Wolf-Hirschhorn patient, makes it likely that Pitt-Rogers-Danks and Wolf-Hirschhorn syndromes are different clinical phenotypes resulting from a deletion in the same microscopic region on chromosome 4p16.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Genetics, University Hospital Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kant
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Haeringen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stec
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Donnai
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mollevanger
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Beverstock
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lindeman-Kusse
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Van Ommen
mesh_terms: D000015:Abnormalities, Multiple / Q000235:genetics*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D002894:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4; D005124:Eye Abnormalities / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008831:Microcephaly; D008875:Middle Aged; D009056:Mouth Abnormalities / Q000235:genetics; D013577:Syndrome