Article Text

Download PDFPDF
CASE REPORT
Maternal uniparental disomy of the chromosome 14: need for growth hormone provocative tests also when a deficiency is not suspected
  1. Anna Tortora1,
  2. Domenico La Sala1,
  3. Fortunato Lonardo2 and
  4. Mario Vitale1
  1. 1 Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Salerno, Baronissi, Salerno, Italy
  2. 2 UOSD Genetica Medica, AO Rummo, Benevento, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Mario Vitale, mavitale{at}unisa.it

Abstract

Uniparental disomy (UPD) is a congenital disease characterised by the presence of two homologous chromosomes inherited from one parent in a diploid offspring. Maternal UPD of the chromosome 14 (UPD(14)mat, Temple syndrome) is a rare disorder with heterogeneous clinical presentation. Here, we report a case of UPD(14)mat with a small supernumerary marker chromosome in a 6-year-old baby girl, presenting endocrinological disorders and incomplete clinical presentation. She came to our attention because of precocious beginning of pubarche and normal stature. Most of Temple syndrome signs were lacking. Provocative tests diagnosed incomplete growth hormone (GH) response and confirmed precocious puberty. One year treatment with recombinant human GH and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists proved successful, increasing height and arresting puberty. We recommend provocative tests for GH in UPD(14)mat as a GH deficiency can be hidden by a concurrent precocious puberty. Concomitant human GH and GnRH analogue treatment can be pursued.

  • pituitary disorders
  • congenital disorders

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors AT contributed to conduct of case and participated to manuscript draft. DLS contributed to conduct of case and participated to manuscript draft. FL contributed to genetic analysis. MV contributed to conduct of case and participated to manuscript draft.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Patient consent for publication Parental/guardian consent obtained.