Joubert syndrome in Chinese infants and children: a report of four cases

Four Chinese infants and children (3 females1 male), aged from five months to three years, are diagnosed with Joubert syndrome by clinical and radiological findings. The clinical presentations included panting respiration with apnea in the newborn period (4/4), psychomotor retardation (4/4) and ataxia (2/4). The ocular findings were strabismus (3/4), unilateral ptosis (2/4), jerky eye movement (1/4) and retinal atrophy (1/4). Associated cerebral anomalies were occipital encephalocele (1/4) and hypoplasia of corpus callosum (1/4). All four underwent electroencephalography, abdominal ultrasonography, auditory and visual evoked potential tests; results were all normal. Two patients underwent electroretinogram with normal findings. The brain magnetic resonance imagings of all four patients showed dysgenesis of cerebellar vermis. For children presenting with ataxia and psychomotor retardation, Joubert syndrome is a more obvious diagnostic choice, but it is also important to keep this unusual disorder in mind as a differential diagnosis of neonatal tachypnea with apnea.