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Published 5 July 2009
Cite this as: BMJ Case Reports 2009 [doi:10.1136/bcr.06.2009.1996]
Copyright © 2009 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect

Duplication of the Williams–Beuren critical region: case report and further delineation of the phenotypic spectrum

C Orellana1, J Bernabeu2,4, S Monfort1, M Roselló1, S Oltra1, I Ferrer1, R Quiroga1, I Martínez-Garay3, F Martínez1

1 Unidad de Genética y Diagnóstico Prenatal, Hospital Universitario La Fe, Valencia, Spain
2 Unidad de Oncología Pediátrica, Hospital Universitario La Fe, Valencia, Spain
3 Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Valencia, Spain
4 Dpto. MIDE Universidad de Valencia, Spain

Correspondence to:
C Orellana, orellana_car{at}gva.es

SUMMARY

Only 12 patients with a duplication of the Williams-Beuren critical region (WBCR) have been reported to date, with variable developmental, psychomotor and language delay, in the absence of marked dysmorphic features. In this paper we present a new WBCR microduplication case, which supports the wide variability displayed by this duplication in the phenotype. The WBCR microduplication may be associated with autistic spectrum disorder, but most reported cases do not show this behavioural disorder, or may even show a hypersociable personality, as with our patient. From the present case and a review of the 12 previously described, we conclude that the phenotype associated with duplication of WBCR can affect the same domains as WBCR deletion, but that they cluster near the polar ends of social relationship (autism-like v hypersociability), language (expressive language impairment v "cocktail party" speech), visuospatial (severe v normal), mental retardation (severe v mild) and dysmorphic (severe v mild) features.


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