Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome

Abstract

Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a rare developmental disorder associated with hemizygous deletion of short arm of chromosome 4. Main phenotype characteristics of WHS are: intrauterine growth retardation, mental retardation, typical facial dysmorphism ("Greek warrior helmet"), microcephaly and midline fusion defects (cleft lip or palate, cardiac septal defects). Other abnormalities, like agenesis of corpus callosum, dysplastic kidneys, coloboma iris, skeletal abnormalities have been described occasionally. We described female newborn baby with 4p deletion, who had most of the phenotype characteristics of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome: intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly, facial dysmorphism, congenital hypotonia and seizures in neonatal period. Other abnormalities included: hypoplastic cervical vertebra C4-C5, renal cyst and partial agenesis of corpus callosum. Patient had not cardiac septal defect. Due to a broad spectrum of possible morphologic abnormalities followed by mental retardation, prenatal diagnosis is very important. Postnatal recognition of the syndrome requires genetic counseling of parents and supportive multidisciplinary treatment.