Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy with autonomic crises: a Turkish variant of familial dysautonomia?

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies have different phenotypes. We report 2 cousins with differing clinical courses of a hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy. The progressive disease in case 1 is dominated by loss of sensation, autonomic crises, and pain. Case 2 shows loss of sensation, mental retardation, and deafness, clinically similar to patients with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type II. Detailed molecular studies in case 1 for all known genes that are associated with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies were negative. However, the occurrence of the 2 cases within 1 kindred makes a common genetic background likely. We, therefore, propose a Turkish variant of familial dysautonomia in these 2 patients.