1. NGS in Hereditary Ataxia: When Rare Becomes Frequent.
- Author
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Galatolo, Daniele, De Michele, Giovanna, Silvestri, Gabriella, Leuzzi, Vincenzo, Casali, Carlo, Musumeci, Olimpia, Antenora, Antonella, Astrea, Guja, Barghigiani, Melissa, Battini, Roberta, Battisti, Carla, Caputi, Caterina, Cioffi, Ettore, De Michele, Giuseppe, Dotti, Maria Teresa, Fico, Tommasina, Fiorillo, Chiara, Galosi, Serena, Lieto, Maria, and Malandrini, Alessandro
- Subjects
FRIEDREICH'S ataxia ,GENETIC disorder diagnosis ,GENETIC testing ,GENETIC disorders ,PHENOTYPES - Abstract
The term hereditary ataxia (HA) refers to a heterogeneous group of neurological disorders with multiple genetic etiologies and a wide spectrum of ataxia-dominated phenotypes. Massive gene analysis in next-generation sequencing has entered the HA scenario, broadening our genetic and clinical knowledge of these conditions. In this study, we employed a targeted resequencing panel (TRP) in a large and highly heterogeneous cohort of 377 patients with a clinical diagnosis of HA, but no molecular diagnosis on routine genetic tests. We obtained a positive result (genetic diagnosis) in 33.2% of the patients, a rate significantly higher than those reported in similar studies employing TRP (average 19.4%), and in line with those performed using exome sequencing (ES, average 34.6%). Moreover, 15.6% of the patients had an uncertain molecular diagnosis. STUB1, PRKCG, and SPG7 were the most common causative genes. A comparison with published literature data showed that our panel would have identified 97% of the positive cases reported in previous TRP-based studies and 92% of those diagnosed by ES. Proper use of multigene panels, when combined with detailed phenotypic data, seems to be even more efficient than ES in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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