Hearing characteristics of Branchio-oto-renal syndrome in Japan

Branchio-oto-renal (BOR) syndrome is characterized by branchiogenic malformation, hearing loss, and renal anomalies, with EYA1, SIX1, and SIX5 known as the causative genes. As BOR syndrome presents with various clinical phenotypes, its characteristics and genotype-phenotype correlations remain unknown.

In this study, we aimed to clarify the detailed hearing loss phenotypes and genotype-phenotype correlations of BOR syndrome.

In this study, we performed an etiological analysis of 169 BOR syndrome patients from 129 families. We also performed genetic testing for 78 probands.

In all, 66.7% of BOR patients carried EYA1 variants, whereas 17.9% carried SIX1 variants. We also clarified the detailed clinical features including the prevalence of major and minor symptoms, asymmetrical hearing loss, type of hearing loss, severity of hearing loss and detailed clinical characteristics of auricular, external ear, and middle ear and inner ear anomalies. In terms of genotype-phenotype correlations, patients with SIX1 variants had no kidney anomalies and fewer middle ear anomalies.

We clarified the detailed hearing loss phenotypes of BOR syndrome patients. Our study results will contribute to a better understanding and clinical management of BOR syndrome patients.