Confounding clinical presentation and different disease progression in CMT4B1

Abstract

We report seven Charcot-Marie-Tooth 4B1 (CMT4B1) patients from four families with distinctive features, presenting with severe distal weakness and cranial nerve involvement. Patient from family 1 presented with congenital varus foot deformity, progressive distal and proximal weakness leading to loss of ambulation at 14 years, bilateral facial palsy and prominent bulbar involvement. In three siblings from family 2, still ambulant in the second decade, neuropathy was associated with marked sweating and Arnold-Chiari syndrome. Patient from family 3, wheelchair-bound by 17 years, suffered from recurrent intestinal occlusion due to a mesenteric malformation. Patients from family 4, wheelchair-bound from age 6 years, were first diagnosed with type 1 Usher syndrome with congenital deafness and retinitis pigmentosa. CMT4B1 diagnosis was based upon suggestive clinical features and confirmed by the presence of recessive mutations in the MTMR2 gene. Our results expand the genetic and phenotypic spectrum of CMT4B1, which may include autonomic system involvement.

Keywords: Bulbar and facial weakness; CMT; Chiari Syndrome; MTMR2 gene; Neuropathy; Usher.