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Introduction: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young is rare and should always lead to suspicion of a genetic cardiac disorder. We describe a family, in which the proband was a girl deceased by sudden cardiac death in the playground at thirteen years of age. The index-patient had short stature, cleft palate but no previous cardiac symptoms. We found an uncommon cause of cardiomyopathy, due to a congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG), previously described to cause a variable range of usually mild symptoms, and not previously found to cause SCD as the first symptom of the condition., Methods: The index patient underwent postmortem genetic testing/molecular autopsy for genes known to cause SCD, without a detection of causative agent, why two siblings of similar phenotype as the deceased sister underwent clinical-exome genetic sequencing (next generation sequencing). All first-degree relatives underwent clinical examination including cardiac ultrasound, Holter-ECG, exercise stress test and biochemistry panel., Results: A genetic variant in the gene for phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) was identified in the index patient and her two brothers, all were found to be homozygous for the genetic variant (G230E) NM_002633.2:c.689 G > A in PGM1. This variant has been linked to a congenital disorder of glycosylation (PGM1-CDG), explaining the clinical picture of short stature, cleft palate, liver engagement and cardiomyopathy. During follow-up one of the brothers died unexpectedly after physical exertion during daily life at the age of twelve years. The other brother fainted during similar circumstances at the age of thirteen years. Both parents and three other siblings were found to be heterozygous gene carriers without risk for the disease., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that there is a need of multidisciplinary discussion and genetic testing after unexpected cardiac death in the young. We have to be more flexible in our evaluation of diseases and to consider even uncommon diseases including rare recessive inherited disorders. Our findings also suggest that the autosomal recessive PGM1-CDG might be highly associated with life-threatening cardiomyopathy with arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death as the first symptom presenting from childhood and adolescence., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type 1 (CDGS-1) is an autosomal recessive hereditary metabolic disorder, the gene locus of which is chromosome 16p13. The disorder is characterised by genetic heterogeneity, and by decrease in the gene product, phosphomannomutase 2, though the heterogeneity is far less manifest in affected Swedish families. Its incidence is 1/80,000 live births, and the under-5 mortality rate over 30 per cent. The causes of death are liver failure, cardiac tamponade, haemorrhaging, and severe infection. The characteristic biochemical aberration is the occurrence of deficient carbohydrate chains in many but not all circulating glycoproteins, and the serum and blood concentrations of some glycoproteins may be above or below normal. These changes may improve over time, but never normalise. The clinical picture is generally more problematic during the first years of life when psychomotor retardation is complicated by failure to thrive, liver dysfunction, pericardial effusions, and stroke-like episodes. In addition, strabismus, lipocutaneous anomalies, and gluteal fat pads are always present, and muscular hypotonia and restricted joint mobility are common. Failure to thrive is common, with vomiting and diarrhoea and subsequent slow growth. Inflammation is a constant finding in the liver, and very common in the small bowel. Pancreatic function is also affected. Pericardial effusion has been reported in 50 per cent of the youngest children, requiring pericardectomy in 30 per cent of cases. Haemorrhaging and thromboembolic complications may occur, and the serum concentrations of several factors and inhibitors are low, particularly those of factors V and XI, protein C and antithrombin. Stroke-like episodes occur in about 30 per cent of cases, often following an infection, with coma lasting for hours to several days. Such sequelae as hemiplegia, blindness, and other focal neurological pathology have been observed transiently. Diagnosis is based on the serum carbohydrate-deficient transferrin level, verified by isoelectric focusing. Molecular genetic procedures enable point mutations to be identified and prenatal diagnosis to be performed in many families.

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type I (CDG I) is characterized clinically by severe nervous system involvement and biochemically by defects in the carbohydrate residues in a number of serum glycoproteins. The CDG1 gene was recently localized by us to a 13-cM interval in chromosome region 16p13. In this study 44 CDG I families from nine countries were analyzed with available markers in a region ranging from marker D16S495 to D16S497, and haplotype and linkage disequilibrium analyses were performed. One specific haplotype was found to be markedly overrepresented in CDG I patients from a geographically distinct region in Scandinavia, strongly indicating that CDG I families in this region share the same ancestral CDG1 mutation. furthermore, analysis of the extent of the common haplotype in these families indicates that the CDG1 gene is located in the region defined by markers D16S513-AFMa284wd5-D16S768-D16S406-D16S502 . The critical CDG1 region, in strong linkage disequilibrium with markers AFMa284wd5, D16S768, and D16S406, thus constitutes less than 1 Mb of DNA and less than 1 cM in the very distal part of the CDG1 region defined by us previously.