Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy: Pathogenic desmosome mutations in index-patients predict outcome of family screening: Dutch arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy genotype-phenotype follow-up study

Background-: Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is an autosomal dominant inherited disease with incomplete penetrance and variable expression. Causative mutations in genes encoding 5 desmosomal proteins are found in ≈50% of ARVD/C index patients. Previous genotype-phenotype relation studies involved mainly overt ARVD/C index patients, so follow-up data on relatives are scarce. Methods and Results-: One hundred forty-nine ARVD/C index patients (111 male patients; age, 49±13 years) according to 2010 Task Force criteria and 302 relatives from 93 families (282 asymptomatic; 135 male patients; age, 44±13 years) were clinically and genetically characterized. DNA analysis comprised sequencing of plakophilin-2 (PKP2), desmocollin-2, desmoglein-2, desmoplakin, and plakoglobin and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification to identify large deletions in PKP2. Pathogenic mutations were found in 87 index patients (58%), mainly truncating PKP2 mutations, including 3 cases with multiple mutations. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification revealed 3 PKP2 exon deletions. ARVD/C was diagnosed in 31% of initially asymptomatic mutation-carrying relatives and 5% of initially asymptomatic relatives of index patients without mutation. Prolonged terminal activation duration was observed more than negative T waves in V1 to V3, especially in mutation-carrying relatives <20 years of age. In 45% of screened families, ≥1 affected relatives were identified (90% with mutations). Conclusions-: Pathogenic desmosomal gene mutations, mainly truncating PKP2 mutations, underlie ARVD/C in the majority (58%) of Dutch index patients and even 90% of familial cases. Additional multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification analysis contributed to discovering pathogenic mutations underlying ARVD/C. Discovering pathogenic mutations in index patients enables those relatives who have a 6-fold increased risk of ARVD/C diagnosis to be identified. Prolonged terminal activation duration seems to be a first sign of ARVD/C in young asymptomatic relatives

The diagnostic yield of whole-exome sequencing targeting a gene panel for hearing impairment in the Netherlands

Hearing impairment (HI) is genetically heterogeneous which hampers genetic counseling and molecular diagnosis. Testing of several single HI-related genes is laborious and expensive. In this study, we evaluate the diagnostic utility of whole-exome sequencing (WES) targeting a panel of HI-related genes. Two hundred index patients, mostly of Dutch origin, with presumed hereditary HI underwent WES followed by targeted analysis of an HI gene panel of 120 genes. We found causative variants underlying the HI in 67 of 200 patients (33.5%). Eight of these patients have a large homozygous deletion involving STRC, OTOA or USH2A, which could only be identified by copy number variation detection. Variants of uncertain significance were found in 10 patients (5.0%). In the remaining 123 cases, no potentially causative variants were detected (61.5%). In our patient cohort, causative variants in GJB2, USH2A, MYO15A and STRC, and in MYO6 were the leading causes for autosomal recessive and dominant HI, respectively. Segregation analysis and functional analyses of variants of uncertain significance will probably further increase the diagnostic yield of WES