PURPOSE Microphthalmia, anophthalmia, and coloboma are ocular malformations with a significant genetic component. Rx is a homeobox gene expressed early in the developing retina and is important in retinal cell fate specification as well as stem cell proliferation. We screened a group of 24 patients with microphthalmia, coloboma, and/or anophthalmia for RX mutations. METHODS We used standard P...

Ocular colobomata present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges in patients of all ages, but especially in young children. The "typical" coloboma, caused by defective closure of the fetal fissure, is located in the inferonasal quadrant, and it may affect any part of the globe traversed by the fissure from the iris to the optic nerve. Ocular colobomata are often associated with microphthalmia, a...

The clinical presentation of optic nerve anomalies associated with renal hypodysplasia should alert the clinician to the possibility that a patient may have renal coloboma syndrome, a condition also known as papillorenal syndrome (OMIM#120330). The optic nerve findings could be described as a ‘dysplasia’, characterized by absent central vessels with the emergence of vessels from the periphery o...

Agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) is a common brain anomaly with a birth incidence of at least 1 in 4,000. ACC can occur as an isolated malformation or as a component of a syndrome. Here, we report on an autosomal recessive syndrome with ACC, optic coloboma, craniofacial dysmorphism, skeletal anomalies, and intractable seizures in a brother and sister from a consanguineous family. Homozygos...

The case of a 10-month-old girl with an extra G-like chromosome is presented. Quinacrine, trypsin-Giemsa, and reverse banding identified the extra chromosome as no. 22. The phenotype of the patient is unique in that unilateral iris coloboma was observed, unlike the 18 cases of full trisomy 22 already published. This represents the first reported case of full trisomy 22 with this coloboma, or 'c...

Disease name: CHARGE syndrome ICD 10: Q87.8 Synonyms: CHARGE association; Hall-Hittner syndrome CHARGE syndrome was initially defined as a non-random association of anomalies • Coloboma • Heart defect • Atresia Choanae • Retarded Growth and Development • Genital Hypoplasia • Ear Anomalies/Deafness In 1998, an expert group defined the major (the classical 4C ́s: Choanal atresia, Coloboma, Charact...

The CHARGE (coloboma, heart defects, atresia, retardation, genital, ear) syndrome is a genetic disease characterized by ocular coloboma, choanal atresia or stenosis and semicircular canal abnormalities. Most of the patients clinically diagnosed with CHARGE syndrome have mutations in chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 7 (CHD7) gene. The CHD7 gene is located on chromosome 8q12.1, and up to...