Predictive diagnostic value for the clinical features accompanying intellectual disability in children with pathogenic copy number variations: a multivariate analysis.
BACKGROUND
Array comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH) has become the first-tier investigation in patients with unexplained developmental delay/intellectual disability (DD/ID). Although the costs are progressively decreasing, a-CGH is still an expensive and labour-intensive technique: for this reason a definition of the categories of patients that can benefit the most of the analysis is needed. Aim of the study was to retrospectively analyze the clinical features of children with DD/ID attending the outpatient clinic of the Mother & Child Department of the University Hospital of Modena subjected to a-CGH, to verify by uni- and multivariate analysis the independent predictors of pathogenic CNVs.


METHODS
116 patients were included in the study. Data relative to the CNVs and to the patients' clinical features were analyzed for genotype/phenotype correlations.


CONCLUSIONS
27 patients (23.3%) presented pathogenic CNVs (21 deletions, 3 duplications and 3 cases with both duplications and deletions). Univariate analysis showed a significant association of the pathogenic CNVs with the early onset of symptoms (before 1 yr of age) and the presence of malformations and dysmorphisms. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant independent predictive value for diagnosing a pathogenic CNV for malformations (P = 0.002) and dysmorphisms (P = 0.023), suggesting that those features should address a-CGH analysis as a high-priority test for diagnosis.
Elisa
E
Caramaschi
Ilaria
I
Stanghellini
Pamela
P
Magini
Maria Grazia
MG
Giuffrida
Silvia
S
Scullin
Tiziana
T
Giuva
Patrizia
P
Bergonzini
Azzurra
A
Guerra
Paolo
P
Paolucci
Medical Genetics Unit, Department of Mother & Child, University Hospital of Modena, Via del Pozzo, 71, 41124 Modena, Italy. percesepe.antonio@unimo.it.
Antonio
A
Percesepe
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies