22q11.2 distal deletion syndrome: Description of a new case with truncus arteriosus type 2 and review

22q11.2 deletion syndrome is mainly characterized by conotruncal congenital heart defects, velopharyngeal insufficiency, hypocalcemia and a characteristic craniofacial appearance. The etiology in the majority of patients is a 3-Mb recurrent deletion in region 22q11.2. Nevertheless, recently some cases of infrequent deletions with various sizes have been reported with a different phenotype. We report on a patient with congenital heart disease (truncus arteriosus type 2) in whom a de novo 1.3-Mb 22q11.2 deletion was detected by array comparative genomic hybridization. The deletion described corresponds to an atypical and distal deletion which spans low copy repeat (LCR) 4 and is associated with breakpoint sites that do not correspond to known LCRs of 22q11.2. We examine the clinical phenotype of our case and compare our findings with those published in the literature. The most prevalent clinical features in this type of deletion are a history of prematurity, pre-natal and post-natal growth retardation, slight facial dysmorphic features, microcephaly and developmental delay, with a speech defect in particular. These are clearly different from those found in the classic 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and we believe that the main differential diagnosis should be with Silver-Russel syndrome. In our case we observe the cardiac phenotype with truncus arteriosus communis usually seen in the classic 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and so far associated with the TBX1 gene. Significantly, however, TBX1 is not included in our patient's deletion. The possible roles of a position effect or other genes are discussed.