Retinal arteriolar macroaneurysms with supravalvular pulmonic stenosis in the United Arab Emirates

Retinal arteriolar macroaneurysms with supravalvular pulmonic stenosis (RAMSVPS) is a rare syndrome that to date has only been reported in Saudi Arabian families. All tested patients have been homozygous for a single IGFBP7 splice variant (NM_001553.2:c.830-1G>A). We report our experience with RAMSVPS in the United Arab Emirates.

Retrospective case series.

Five affected individuals (two males and three females) from two unrelated Emirati families were known to our institution (age of first signs 6 months to 10 years of age, with one asymptomatic 6-year-old boy identified by sibling screening examination). Initial ophthalmic diagnoses had been Coats disease or traumatic retinal bleeding. Characteristic retinal arteriolar trunk beading and macroaneurysms led to the actual diagnosis of RAMSVPS. One child with esotropia at 6 months of age seemed to have unilateral Coats disease until retinal signs became apparent in the contralateral eye at 4 years old. One family consented to genetic testing, and both affected siblings were homozygous for the Saudi IGFBP7 splice variant (c.830-1G>A). The three children who underwent echocardiography were all confirmed to have cardiac valvular abnormalities (two supravalvular pulmonic stenosis and one tricuspid stenosis).

The distinct ophthalmic phenotype of RAMSVPS is important to recognize because of systemic implications. Retinal findings can be misinterpreted as sequelae of trauma or Coats disease and can seem unilateral in very young children until changes in the contralateral eye become apparent years later. The homozygous IGFBP7 splice variant associated with the disease likely represents an ancestral founder effect for the Arabian Peninsula.