Severe Infantile Neuropathy with Diaphragmatic Weakness and Its Relationship to SMARD1
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DOI: 10.1093/brain/awg278 Advanced Access publication September 23, 2003 Brain (2003), 126, 2682±2692 Severe infantile neuropathy with diaphragmatic weakness and its relationship to SMARD1 Matthew Pitt,1 Henry Houlden,2 Jean Jacobs,2 Quen Mok,1 Brian Harding,1 Mary Reilly2 and Robert Surtees1 1Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Correspondence to: Dr Matthew Pitt, Department of 2The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Clinical Neurophysiology, Great Ormond Street Hospital London, UK for Children NHS Trust, Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3JH, UK E-mail [email protected] Downloaded from Summary A group of 13 patients with early onset diaphragmatic cord in one patient failed to ®nd any evidence of an palsy in association with a progressive neuropathy is SMA. Four out of the ®ve not tested genetically were presented. All eight of those tested were found to have positive for all diagnostic criteria. None of the cases of mutations in the same gene encoding the immunoglobu- early onset neuropathies or spinal muscular atrophies http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/ lin mu-binding protein 2 (IGHMBP2) in patients with with early respiratory failure reviewed in the literature spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) with respiratory dis- shares the exact characteristics, but many do have very tress type 1. Six out of these eight patients had either close similarities. Their classi®cation varies, but the dis- homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations, and covery of mutations in IGHMBP2 in cases that are vari- two had only a single heterozygous mutation. Detailed ously classi®ed as SMA plus or severe infantile analysis of the clinical picture and the neurophysiologi- neuropathy with respiratory distress points to a need cal and histopathological ®ndings indicated that these for the search for this genetic defect to be widened to patients shared similar characteristics, which were fur- include both groups. The fact that we identi®ed other, ther developed as a set of diagnostic criteria. Some of similar cases of neuropathy and early respiratory fail- by guest on September 29, 2015 the most striking of these were early onset of respira- ure with and without IGHMBP2 mutations suggests tory compromise, a markedly low birth weight, very genetic as well as clinical heterogeneity in these infants. slow motor nerve conduction velocities and a general It is possible that infants that do not have mutations in decrease in the size of myelinated ®bres on sural nerve the IGHMBP2 gene will be found to have mutations in biopsy. Extensive histological examination of the spinal a similar functioning gene. Keywords: infantile neuropathy; diaphragmatic weakness; respiratory insuf®ciency; respiratory paralysis; peripheral nervous system diseases Abbreviations: CMT = Charcot±Marie±Tooth; IGHMBP2 = immunoglobulin mu-binding protein 2; LLN = lower limit of normal; SIANRF = severe infantile axonal neuropathy with respiratory failure; SMA = spinal muscular atrophy; SMARD1 = SMA with respiratory distress type 1; SMN = survival motor neuron Introduction Respiratory complications in either hereditary peripheral distal hereditary motor neuropathy type VII (Santoro et al., neuropathy or spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are usually not 2002). It has not been described in the neonatal period, seen in the neonatal period. Involvement of the phrenic although Dyck et al. (1994) did report that severely affected nerves has been described in adults with Charcot±Marie± members of two kindreds could be affected in infancy or Tooth (CMT) type 1 due to the chromosome 17 duplication, childhood. The positive family history will make the PMP22 and MPZ mutations (Hardie et al., 1990; Tyson et al., diagnosis uncomplicated. A case classi®ed as congenital 1997). The form of autosomal dominant CMT type 2 hypomyelinating neuropathy with diaphragmatic and vocal associated with diaphragmatic palsy and vocal cord paralysis cord paralysis has been reported (Hahn et al., 2001). (CMT 2C) is genetically distinct from CMT 2A, 2B and 2D It was believed previously that involvement of the (Nagamatusu et al., 2000), as well as types CMT 2E, 2F and diaphragm made the diagnosis of SMA untenable (see table 1 Brain Vol. 126 No. 12 ã Guarantors of Brain 2003; all rights reserved Infantile neuropathy with diaphragmatic weakness 2683 Table 1 Neurophysiology results Case Age Duration Median nerve Ulnar motor Medial popliteal Phrenic nerve latency EMG tibialis EMG tested of illness action potential velocity amplitude (mV) (ms) anterior diaphragm (weeks) (days) amplitude (mV) (ms) velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s) Left Right 1 13 34 31.2 21* 0.5* 11.0* 6.0 Fibs, large units 22* 14** 2 6 16 11.2 24 0.2* Absent Discrete IP 20.0* 11** 3 10 30 12.5 17** Absent 5.1 4.1 Fibs, discrete IP 25* 4 13 24 7.0* Not done 0.45* Not done Severely reduced 25* Not done IP 5 26 150 2.0* 24* 0.2* Absent Discrete IP 16** Absent 6 6 11 Absent 25* Absent Not done Fibs, discrete IP 7 39 190 9.1* 23** Absent Not done Severely reduced Downloaded from 26** Absent IP 8162811 22* 0.16* No response Discrete IP 26* 16** (technical?) 9 36 180 Absent Absent Absent Not Severely reduced No attempted IP discernible activity http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/ 10 10 70 Absent 22* 0.04* 5.8 6.4 Discrete IP + Discrete IP + 11** neurogenic units neurogenic units 11 15 42 Absent 19** Absent Absent Absent Discrete IP + Scattered neurogenic units units with high ®ring rate 12 10 70 Absent Not tested 2.1 Not tested Reduced IP + Reduced IP + 15** neurogenic units neurogenic units by guest on September 29, 2015 13 16 21 Absent 33 1.57* Absent Absent Fibs only 26* For sensory and motor conduction velocities, * = mildly abnormal < lower limit of normal range (LLN) but > 70% LLN; ** = severely abnormal <70% of LLN. For amplitudes of motor and sensory responses, * = abnormal; ®bs = ®brillation potentials; IP = interference pattern. For phrenic nerve latency, * = above upper limit of normal. Rudnik-Schoneborn et al., 1996). Later, the 35th European decrease in the size of myelinated ®bres with minimal Neuromuscular Centre workshop on SMA (1996) recognized evidence of axonal degeneration and no indication of that involvement of the diaphragm can occur in SMA, demyelination. The prognosis was very poor. Our initial although the ®rst report was made in 1977 (Kyllerman, 1977). cohort of six patients, presented previously in abstract form SMA with diaphragmatic involvement is now classi®ed under (Pitt et al., 1998), has now increased to 13 cases, mostly the SMA plus types and has been shown not to be associated unrelated. We have been unable to ®nd convincing evidence with the deletion of the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene on to classify them as SMA and were interested to determine chromosome 5 (Zerres and Davies, 1999). whether they share the genetic abnormalities of the patients Grohmann et al. (2001) studied 11 patients with a clinical studied by Grohmann et al. (2001). The current paper diagnosis of SMA with respiratory distress type 1 (SMARD1) presents these results, along with detailed analysis of clinical, and 21 of their relatives from a total of six families. They electrophysiological and histopathological ®ndings. found mutations in the gene encoding immunoglobulin mu- binding protein 2 (IGHMBP2). An animal model with early onset neuromuscular degeneration, the neuromuscular dis- order mouse, also has mutations in the IGHMBP2 gene, and Case report Grohmann et al. (2001) suggest that this mutation is the cause Case 1 of SMARD1 in humans. This boy, the ®rst child of healthy unrelated parents, was born Our group has been interested in a series of neonates who at term by emergency Caesarean section, and weighed 2.06 presented with severe respiratory distress in the ®rst few kg. He presented at 8 days of age, with a history of poor months of life. They had diaphragmatic palsy and evidence of feeding requiring nasogastric tube feeding. Four days later he an axonal neuropathy. Sural nerve biopsies showed a general developed signs of respiratory distress. A chest X-ray showed 2684 M. Pitt et al. Table 2 Quantitative neuropathology results Case Age Fascicular Myelinated Mean ®bre Mean axon Unmyelinated Mean (months) area (mm2) ®bre diameter diameter axon unmyelinated density/mm2 (mm) (mm) density/mm2 axon diameter (mm) 1 3 0.15 23 730 3.64 2.92 136 300 0.9 2 2 0.18 19 030 4.07 2.78 ± ± 3 2 0.15 24 680 3.29 2.58 130 110 1.0 4 3 0.19 22 760 3.54 2.51 129 800 1.0 5 5 0.29 23 170 3.46 2.56 101 420 0.9 6 3 0.24 21 630 3.85 2.91 ± ± 7 10 0.28 17 704 3.96 3.06 8 3.5 21 211 9 6 0.19 17 285 10 3 0.22 20 862 3.06 2.41 11 3 23 252 12 3 10 640 3.97 Downloaded from 13 5 15 755 4.6 3.6 Controls, 0±2 0.23 6 0.03, 23 480 6 3800, 4.5 6 0.2, 3.4 6 0.2, 149 000, 0.9, mean 6 SD n =4 n =4 n =3 n =3 n =2 n =2 bilateral diffuse shadowing. By 11 weeks of age he remained Children between 1989 and 2001 with early onset respiratory http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/ persistently tachypnoeic, was failing to thrive and was distress. The majority (11 out of 13) were seen between 1996 referred for further investigation. and 2001. Two were sisters, one seen in 1989 (Case 4) and the On admission, his weight was below the 10th centile, he second in 2001 (Case 12). Case 7 had a 6-year-old sister who had grunting respiration and had only a weak cry.