Experience of the diagnosis and observation of a child with wolf-hirschhorn syndrome

Abstract

Modern data about the causes, course peculiarities, principles of diagnosis and symptomatic treatment of Wolf-Hirshhorn syndrome are given in the article. The description of own clinical case is presented. In most cases, there are multiple developmental abnormalities, in particular heart and kidney defects. External symptoms include: the unusual structure of the skull (“ancient warrior’s helmet”), straight bridge of the nose, moderately severe microcephaly, hypertelorism, small mouth with drooping corners, abnormal auricle’s forms, also cleft lip and cleft palate, eyeballs anomalies, hypospadias, feet deformity. Hemangiomas of the skin are often presented, they are usually flat, small and located on the face. Muscle hypotonia, significantly reduced reaction to external stimuli are revealed during the examination. The diagnosis is based on clinical changes and is confirmed by the DNA research. Deletion of the short arm of chromosome 4 is detected in approximately 80 % of probands. The description of own clinical observation of a child with Wolf-Hirshhorn syndrome, confirmed at the age of 3 months, is presented. Despite the early detection of the syndrome and prescribed appropriate therapy, the disease has a poor prognosis.

Keywords

• Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome
• multiple congenital developmental abnormalities
• children