A case of craniofacial dysmorphism, congenital heart defects, coccygeal skin folds, generalized skeletal alterations, and hemihypertrophy with linear skin hypopigmentation: a new syndrome?

The case of a Japanese girl with a unique combination of congenital malformations is reported. The malformations include craniofacial dysmorphism, congenital heart defects, coccygeal skin folds, generalized skeletal alterations, and hemihypertrophy with linear skin hypopigmentation that indicated somatic mosaicism of a mutated gene or a submicroscopic chromosomal aberration. The phenotype in our patient overlapped significantly with, but was not completely consistent with, that of ter Haar syndrome, a recently elucidated malformation syndrome with an autosomal recessive trait. The present patient may have represented a previously undescribed malformation syndrome, or an atypical manifestation of ter Haar syndrome due to somatic mosaicism.