Molecular and Cytogenetic Analysis of Romanian Patients with Differences in Sex Development.

UNLABELLED

Differences in sex development (DSD) are often correlated with a genetic etiology. This study aimed to assess the etiology of DSD patients following a protocol of genetic testing.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study prospectively investigated a total of 267 patients with DSD who presented to Clinical Emergency Hospital for Children Cluj-Napoca between January 2012 and December 2019. Each patient was clinically, biochemically, and morphologically evaluated. As a first intervention, the genetic test included karyotype + testing. A high value of 17-hydroxyprogesterone was found in 39 patients, in whom strip assay analysis of the gene was subsequently performed. A total of 35 patients were evaluated by chromosomal microarray technique, and 22 patients were evaluated by the NGS of a gene panel.

RESULTS

The karyotype analysis established the diagnosis in 15% of the patients, most of whom presented with sex chromosome abnormalities. Genetic testing of established a confirmation of the diagnosis in 44% of patients tested. SNP array analysis was particularly useful in patients with syndromic DSD; 20% of patients tested presented with pathogenic CNVs or uniparental disomy. Gene panel sequencing established the diagnosis in 11 of the 22 tested patients (50%), and the androgen receptor gene was most often involved in these patients. The genes that presented as pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants or variants of uncertain significance were , , , , , , , , , , , , , and genes.

CONCLUSION

An evaluation following a genetic testing protocol that included karyotype and gene testing, analysis, chromosomal analysis by microarray, and high-throughput sequencing were useful in establishing the diagnosis, with a spectrum of diagnostic yield depending on the technique (between 15 and 50%). Additionally, new genetic variants not previously described in DSD were observed.