Behavioral abnormalities are common and severe in patients with distal 22q11.2 microdeletions and microduplications

Mol Genet Genomic Med. 2015 Jul;3(4):346-53. doi: 10.1002/mgg3.146. Epub 2015 Apr 16.

Abstract

We describe six individuals with microdeletions and microduplications in the distal 22q11.2 region detected by microarray. Five of the abnormalities have breakpoints in the low-copy repeats (LCR) in this region and one patient has an atypical rearrangement. Two of the six patients with abnormalities in the region between LCR22 D-E have hearing loss, which has previously been reported only once in association with these abnormalities. We especially note the behavioral/neuropsychiatric problems, including the severity and early onset, in patients with distal 22q11.2 rearrangements. Our patients add to the genotype-phenotype correlations which are still being generated for these chromosomal anomalies.

Keywords: Distal 22q11.2 microdeletion; distal 22q11.2 microduplication; low copy repeats; neuropsychiatric problems.