Novel mutations in the TAZ gene in patients with Barth syndrome

Barth syndrome is an X-linked recessive disorder that is caused by mutations in Taffazin gene (TAZ), leading to severe cardiolipin deficiency which results in respiratory chain dysfunction. Barth syndrome is characterized by cardiomyopathy, neutropenia, skeletal myopathy, growth deficiency and 3-methylglutaconic aciduria. In this paper, we present clinical, biochemical and molecular data of the first four Czech patients from four unrelated families diagnosed with this rare disease. The mean age of onset was 5.5 ± 3.8 months. One child suffered from sudden cardiac death at the age of 2 years, the age of living patients is between 3 and 13 years. Muscle hypotonia was present in all four patients; cardiomyopathy and growth retardation in three and neutropenia in two of them. Two patients manifested a dilated and one patient a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A characteristic laboratory abnormality was the intermittently increased excretion of 3-methylglutaconic acid. Three novel hemizygous mutations in the TAZ gene were found (c.584G>T; c.109+6T>C; c.86G>A). We conclude that Barth syndrome should be included in differential diagnosis of cardiomyopathy in childhood, especially in the cooccurrence of dilated cardiomyopathy and 3-methylglutaconic aciduria.