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The principle of medical triage, where patients are sorted into categories to guide the order in which they receive treatment, dates back to Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, the surgeon general of Napolean's armies. The concept evolved with military conflicts throughout the 19th century, was subsequently adapted to situations off the battlefield, and is now widely practiced where resources are limited.2 Military medical providers are taught triage principles early in their careers and its use is routinely integrated into military training scenarios and operational planning.

NAA10 is the catalytic subunit of the N-terminal acetyltransferase complex, NatA, which is responsible for N-terminal acetylation of nearly half the human proteome. Since 2011, at least 21 different NAA10 missense variants have been reported as pathogenic in humans. The clinical features associated with this X-linked condition vary, but commonly described features include developmental delay, intellectual disability, cardiac anomalies, brain abnormalities, facial dysmorphism and/or visual impairment. Here, we present eight individuals from five families with five different de novo or inherited NAA10 variants. In order to determine their pathogenicity, we have performed biochemical characterisation of the four novel variants c.16G>C p.(A6P), c.235C>T p.(R79C), c.386A>C p.(Q129P) and c.469G>A p.(E157K). Additionally, we clinically describe one new case with a previously identified pathogenic variant, c.384T>G p.(F128L). Our study provides important insight into how different NAA10 missense variants impact distinct biochemical functions of NAA10 involving the ability of NAA10 to perform N-terminal acetylation. These investigations may partially explain the phenotypic variability in affected individuals and emphasise the complexity of the cellular pathways downstream of NAA10.

The reader is encouraged to write possible diagnoses for each case before turning to the discussion. We invite readers to contribute case presentations and discussions. Please use the Submit and Track My Manuscript link on the Pediatrics in Review homepage: http://pedsinreview.aappublications.org . A 34-month-old boy with known global developmental delays from Saudi Arabia is being evaluated after a first afebrile seizure. The seizure is described as full body shaking for 30 seconds with full recovery after a brief postictal period. There is no family history of neurologic disease and no known consanguinity. At birth there was a transient neonatal encephalopathy. At 6 months of age, persistent hypotonia prompted an evaluation for genetic and metabolic disorders and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the results of which were reportedly normal. Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic injury had been suggested as the likely cause of his neonatal encephalopathy and developmental delays. Currently, these delays include absent expressive language with only simple comprehension. He sat and crawled at approximately 2 years of age and only recently started cruising. His family is especially distressed by the fact that he sleeps very little and awakens several times at night. Physical examination reveals no obvious dysmorphic features except for mild prognathism. There are no cutaneous lesions suggestive of a neurocutaneous disorder. His head circumference is 47.4 cm (10th percentile), whereas height and weight are in the 50th percentile. He is alert and attentive to his environment and responsively smiles and laughs frequently. Axial hypotonia is noted in the presence of normal strength. Deep tendon reflexes are normal. Gait is wide and consists of a couple independent steps. The result of subsequent brain MRI is normal. Electroencephalography (EEG) reveals runs of posterior high-voltage slowing with admixed sharp waves. Additional genetic evaluation confirmed the diagnosis. A small head circumference relative to the …

Mutations affecting skeletal muscle isoforms of the tropomyosin genes may cause nemaline myopathy, cap myopathy, core-rod myopathy, congenital fiber-type disproportion, distal arthrogryposes, and Escobar syndrome. We correlate the clinical picture of these diseases with novel (19) and previously reported (31) mutations of the TPM2 and TPM3 genes. Included are altogether 93 families: 53 with TPM2 mutations and 40 with TPM3 mutations. Thirty distinct pathogenic variants of TPM2 and 20 of TPM3 have been published or listed in the Leiden Open Variant Database (http://www.dmd.nl/). Most are heterozygous changes associated with autosomal-dominant disease. Patients with TPM2 mutations tended to present with milder symptoms than those with TPM3 mutations, DA being present only in the TPM2 group. Previous studies have shown that five of the mutations in TPM2 and one in TPM3 cause increased Ca(2+) sensitivity resulting in a hypercontractile molecular phenotype. Patients with hypercontractile phenotype more often had contractures of the limb joints (18/19) and jaw (6/19) than those with nonhypercontractile ones (2/22 and 1/22), whereas patients with the non-hypercontractile molecular phenotype more often (19/22) had axial contractures than the hypercontractile group (7/19). Our in silico predictions show that most mutations affect tropomyosin-actin association or tropomyosin head-to-tail binding.

Lateral meningocele syndrome (LMS, OMIM%130720), also known as Lehman syndrome, is a very rare skeletal disorder with facial anomalies, hypotonia and meningocele-related neurologic dysfunction. The characteristic lateral meningoceles represent the severe end of the dural ectasia spectrum and are typically most severe in the lower spine. Facial features of LMS include hypertelorism and telecanthus, high arched eyebrows, ptosis, midfacial hypoplasia, micrognathia, high and narrow palate, low-set ears and a hypotonic appearance. Hyperextensibility, hernias and scoliosis reflect a connective tissue abnormality, and aortic dilation, a high-pitched nasal voice, wormian bones and osteolysis may be present. Lateral meningocele syndrome has phenotypic overlap with Hajdu–Cheney syndrome. We performed exome resequencing in five unrelated individuals with LMS and identified heterozygous truncating NOTCH3 mutations. In an additional unrelated individual Sanger sequencing revealed a deleterious variant in the same exon 33. In total, five novel de novo NOTCH3 mutations were identified in six unrelated patients. One had a 26 bp deletion (c.6461_6486del, p.G2154fsTer78), two carried the same single base pair insertion (c.6692_93insC, p.P2231fsTer11), and three individuals had a nonsense point mutation at c.6247A > T (pK2083*), c.6663C>G (p.Y2221*) or c.6732C >A, (p. Y2244*). All mutations cluster into the last coding exon, resulting in premature termination of the protein and truncation of the negative regulatory proline-glutamate-serine-threonine rich PEST domain. Our results suggest that mutant mRNA products escape nonsense mediated decay. The truncated NOTCH3 may cause gain-of-function through decreased clearance of the active intracellular product, resembling NOTCH2 mutations in the clinically related Hajdu–Cheney syndrome and contrasting the NOTCH3 missense mutations causing CADASIL.

Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a developmental disorder characterized by limb reduction defects, characteristic facial features and impaired cognitive development. Mutations in the NIPBL gene predominate; however, mutations in other cohesin complex genes have also been implicated, particularly in atypical and mild CdLS cases. Missense mutations and whole gene deletions in RAD21 have been identified in children with growth retardation, minor skeletal anomalies and facial features that overlap findings in individuals with CdLS. We report the first intragenic deletion and frameshift mutations identified in RAD21 in two patients presenting with atypical CdLS. One patient had an in-frame deletion of exon 13, while the second patient had a c.592_593dup frameshift mutation. The first patient presented with developmental delay, hypospadias, inguinal hernia and dysmorphic features while, the second patient presented with developmental delay, characteristic facial features, hirsutism, and hand and feet anomalies, with the first patient being milder than the second. The in-frame deletion mutation was found to be inherited from the mother who had a history of melanoma and other unspecified medical problems. This study expands the spectrum of RAD21 mutations and emphasizes the clinical utility of performing RAD21 mutation analysis in patients presenting with atypical forms of CdLS. Moreover, the variability of clinical presentation within families and low penetrance of mutations as well as the significance of performing molecular genetic testing in mildly affected patients are discussed.

Mutations affecting skeletal muscle isoforms of the tropomyosin genes may cause nemaline myopathy (NM), cap myopathy, core-rod myopathy, congenital fibre-type disproportion, core-rod myopathy, distal arthrogryposes and Escobar syndrome. Here we correlate the clinical picture of these diseases with novel (16) and previously reported (31) mutations of the TPM2 and TPM3 genes. Included are altogether 93 families: 53 with TPM2 mutations and 40 with TPM3 mutations. A total of 27 Twenty-seven distinct pathogenic variants of TPM2, and 20 of TPM3, have been published or listed in the Leiden Open Variant Database ( http://www.dmd.nl/ ). Most are heterozygous changes associated with autosomal dominant disease. Patients with TPM2 mutations tended to present with milder symptoms than those with TPM3 mutations, DA being present only in the TPM2 group. Previous studies have shown that five of the mutations in TPM2 and one in TPM3 cause increased Ca2 + sensitivity resulting in a hypercontractile molecular phenotype. Patients with hypercontractile phenotypes more often had contractures of the limb joints (18/19) and jaw (6/19) than those with non-hypercontractile ones (2/22 and 1/22), while patients with the non-hypercontractile molecular phenotypes more often (19/22) had axial contractures than the hypercontractile group (7/19). Our in silico predictions show that most mutations affect tropomyosin–actin association or tropomyosin head-to-tail binding.