Diagnostic and clinical utility of comprehensive multigene panel testing for patients with neuropathy

Prior to next-generation sequencing (NGS), the evaluation of a patient with neuropathy typically consisted of screening for acquired causes, followed by clinical genetic testing of PMP22, MFN2, GJB1, and MPZ in patients with a positive family history and symptom onset prior to age 50. In this study, we examined the clinical utility of NGS in a large cohort of patients analyzed in a commercial laboratory.

A cohort of 6849 adult patients underwent clinician-ordered peripheral neuropathy multigene panel testing ranging from 66 to 111 genes that included NGS and intragenic deletion/duplication analysis.

A molecular diagnosis was identified for 8.4% of the cohort (n = 573/6849). Variants in PMP22, MFN2, GJB1, MPZ, and TTR accounted for 73.8% of molecular diagnoses. Results had potential clinical actionability for 398 (69.5%) patients. Our results suggest that 225/573 (39.3%) of molecular diagnoses and 113/398 (28.4%) of clinical interventions would have been missed if the testing approach had been restricted to older guidelines.

Our results highlight the need for expanded genetic testing guidelines that account for the increased number of genes associated with hereditary neuropathy, address the overlap of acquired and hereditary neuropathy, and provide broader access to genetic diagnosis for patients.