The Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS) is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by upper limb and cardiac malformations. Mutations in the TBX5 gene cause HOS and have also been associated with isolated heart and arm defects. Interactions between the TBX5, GATA4 and NKX2.5 proteins have been reported in humans. We screened the TBX5, GATA4, and NKX2.5 genes for mutations, by direct sequencing, in 32 unrelated patients presenting classical (8) or atypical HOS (1), isolated congenital heart defects (16) or isolated upper-limb malformations (7). Pathogenic mutations in the TBX5 gene were found in four HOS patients, including two new mutations (c.374delG; c.678G > T) in typical patients, and the hotspot mutation c.835C > T in two patients, one of them with an atypical HOS phenotype involving lower-limb malformations. Two new mutations in the GATA4 gene were found in association with isolated upper-limb malformations, but their clinical significance remains to be established. A previously described possibly pathogenic mutation in the NKX2.5 gene (c.73C > 7) was detected in a patient with isolated heart malformations and also in his clinically normal father.

In about 50% of first trimester spontaneous abortion the cause remains undetermined after standard cytogenetic investigation. We evaluated the usefulness of array-CGH in diagnosing chromosome abnormalities in products of conception from first trimester spontaneous abortions. Cell culture was carried out in short- and long-term cultures of 54 specimens and cytogenetic analysis was successful in 49 of them. Cytogenetic abnormalities (numerical and structural) were detected in 22 (44.89%) specimens. Subsequent, array-CGH based on large insert clones spaced at ~1 Mb intervals over the whole genome was used in 17 cases with normal G-banding karyotype. This revealed chromosome aneuplodies in three additional cases, giving a final total of 51% cases in which an abnormal karyotype was detected. In keeping with other recently published works, this study shows that array-CGH detects abnormalities in a further ~10% of spontaneous abortion specimens considered to be normal using standard cytogenetic methods. As such, array-CGH technique may present a suitable complementary test to cytogenetic analysis in cases with a normal karyotype.

RESUMO O presente trabalho apresenta três casos de associação de miopia progressiva com polidactilia pós-axial, sendo que dois são irmãos do sexo masculino, filhos de casal não consanguíneo e o terceiro caso é de uma menina filha de pais consanguíneos. Verificou-se na literatura apenas um relato, de Czeizel e Brooser, em 1986, em que é descrita a mesma associação de defeitos, transmitindo-se em quatro gerações de forma autossômica dominante. Acreditamos que nossos pacientes apresentam a mesma síndrome, porém nestas duas famílias existem indícios de que a transmissão ocorra de forma autossômica recessiva.

SUMMARY Postaxial polydactyly and progressive myopia syndrome was described as a new syndrome. This paper reports 3 cases of this association. Two of them were brothers with normal parents and the others had consanguinity among parents. These two evidences suggests an autossomal recessive inheritance. There is only one similar paper in the literature that suggests an autossomal dominant origin.