New X-linked mental retardation disorder with Dandy-Walker malformation, basal ganglia disease, and seizures

We report on a 4 generation family of individuals with an X-linked form of mental retardation involving 9 affected males and 5 obligate carrier females. Key manifestations include severe mental retardation, early hypotonia with progression to spasticity and contractures, choreoathetosis, seizures, presence of a long, narrow face with coarse features, cystic enlargement of the fourth ventricle with cerebellar hypoplasia (Dandy-Walker malformation), and iron accumulation in the basal ganglia with neuroaxonal dystrophy similar to Hallervorden-Spatz disease. Of the 5 known heterozygotes, 3 are dull intellectually, and one of the 3 developed a "presenile dementia." At autopsy she had iron deposition and neuroaxonal dystrophy in the basal ganglia and atrophy of the cerebral cortex. Although the clinical findings among relatives are variable, we conclude that this is a distinct, previously unrecognized X-linked mental retardation syndrome.