Scientific article
Case report
OA Policy
English

Odyssey of a Misclassified Genomic Variant: Insight from an Incidental Finding Assessment

Published inChild neurology open, vol. 10, 2329048X231199327
Publication date2023
First online date2023-08-30
Abstract

Genetic evaluation of a teenager with seizure found no pathogenic variant in a large gene panel, but an incidental likely pathogenic HNF4A variant, deemed to cause MODY1 diabetes. Diabetes history was absent and glycated hemoglobin normal, but serum calcium was severely low, with abnormally high parathyroid hormone. Thus, pseudohypoparathyroidism was suspected and confirmed by molecular genetic testing. Calcium and calcitriol supplementation led to calcium normalization and neurological symptom improvement. Given the absence of personal or family diabetes history, the HNF4A variant was reassessed and found to encode an alternative transcript with poor expression and activity levels, hence downgraded on expert advice from ‘likely pathogenic’ to ‘likely benign’. Besides illustrating the importance of structured medical workup before launching extensive targeted exome sequencing, this case highlights the need for caution in incidental finding interpretation in patients lacking compatible phenotype or family history, and the value of expert advice in such variant interpretation.

Keywords
  • Epilepsy
  • Genetics
  • Incidental finding
  • Next-generation sequencing
Citation (ISO format)
ZGHEIB, Omar et al. Odyssey of a Misclassified Genomic Variant: Insight from an Incidental Finding Assessment. In: Child neurology open, 2023, vol. 10, p. 2329048X231199327. doi: 10.1177/2329048X231199327
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Article (Published version)
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Journal ISSN2329-048X
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Technical informations

Creation27/11/2023 13:37:06
First validation27/11/2023 14:15:47
Update27/11/2023 14:15:47
Status update27/11/2023 14:15:47
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