Prenatal diagnosis of dent disease type I with a nonsense pathogenic variant in CLCN5: a case study

Dent disease type I is a rare X-linked recessive renal tubular disease resulting from pathogenic variants in the CLCN5 gene. Due to the rarity of Dent disease type I and the diversity of its phenotypes, its clinical diagnosis is complex and poses a challenge to clinicians.

A foetus and a child from a 36-year-old pregnant woman with a birth history of abnormal children were enrolled in this study. Pregnant women undergo amniocentesis for prenatal diagnosis at the gestational age of 12^+ 3 weeks. Chromosomal microarray (CMA) analysis and whole-exome sequencing (WES) were employed to investigate the chromosomal copy number and single gene variants. Literature retrieval and data analysis were performed for genotype and phenotype collection analysis.

No chromosomal abnormalities or CNVs were detected in the entire family through karyotype and familial CMA analyses. WES identified a nonsense pathogenic variant in CLCN5 of the X chromosome, c.1942 C > T (exon 11, NM_000084), which was inherited from his mother, who exhibited regular clinical features.

This study suggests that children with low-molecular-weight proteinuria and hypercalciuria should undergo prompt genetic testing to exclude Dent disease.