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CARASIL syndrome(CARASIL)

MedGen UID:
325051
Concept ID:
C1838577
Disease or Syndrome
Synonyms: CARASIL; Cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy; Cerebrovascular disease with thin skin, alopecia, and disc disease; Maeda syndrome; Subcortical vascular encephalopathy, progressive
SNOMED CT: CARASIL syndrome (703219008); Cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (703219008); Maeda syndrome (703219008); Nemoto disease (703219008)
Modes of inheritance:
Autosomal recessive inheritance
MedGen UID:
141025
Concept ID:
C0441748
Intellectual Product
Source: Orphanet
A mode of inheritance that is observed for traits related to a gene encoded on one of the autosomes (i.e., the human chromosomes 1-22) in which a trait manifests in individuals with two pathogenic alleles, either homozygotes (two copies of the same mutant allele) or compound heterozygotes (whereby each copy of a gene has a distinct mutant allele).
 
Gene (location): HTRA1 (10q26.13)
 
Monarch Initiative: MONDO:0010829
OMIM®: 600142
Orphanet: ORPHA199354

Disease characteristics

Excerpted from the GeneReview: HTRA1 Disorder
HTRA1 disorder is a phenotypic spectrum in which some individuals have few to no symptoms and others manifest with the more severe CARASIL (cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy) phenotype. Those who have a heterozygous HTRA1 pathogenic variant may have mild neurologic findings (sometimes identified only on neuroimaging) or mild-to-moderate neurologic signs and symptoms of CARASIL. In this chapter, the term "classic CARASIL" refers to the more severe phenotype associated with biallelic pathogenic variants, and "HTRA1 cerebral small vessel disease" (HTRA1-CSVD) refers to the milder phenotype associated with a heterozygous HTRA1 pathogenic variant. Classic CARASIL is characterized by early-onset changes in the deep white matter of the brain observed on MRI, and associated neurologic findings. The most frequent initial symptom is gait disturbance from spasticity beginning between ages 20 and 40 years. Forty-four percent of affected individuals have stroke-like episodes before age 40 years. Mood changes (apathy and irritability), pseudobulbar palsy, and cognitive dysfunction begin between ages 20 and 50 years. The disease progresses slowly following the onset of neurologic symptoms. Scalp alopecia and acute mid- to lower-back pain (lumbago) before age 30 years are characteristic. The most frequent initial symptom in individuals with HTRA1-CSVD is slowly progressive gait disturbance after age 40 years, which may be followed by the development of mood changes and cognitive dysfunction. A majority of affected individuals have a stroke-like episode after age 40 years. Spondylosis and alopecia are seen in a minority of individuals with HTRA1-CSVD. [from GeneReviews]
Authors:
Osamu Onodera  |  Hiroaki Nozaki  |  Toshio Fukutake   view full author information

Additional descriptions

From OMIM
Autosomal recessive cerebral arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy is a nonhypertensive cerebral small vessel arteriopathy characterized by alopecia, spondylosis, and progressive motor dysfunction and dementia. Onset is usually in the second or third decade (summary by Hara et al., 2009).  http://www.omim.org/entry/600142
From MedlinePlus Genetics
Cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, commonly known as CARASIL, is an inherited condition that causes stroke and other impairments.

Abnormalities affecting the brain and other parts of the nervous system become apparent in an affected person's twenties or thirties. Often, muscle stiffness (spasticity) in the legs and problems with walking are the first signs of the disorder. About half of affected individuals have a stroke or similar episode before age 40. As the disease progresses, most people with CARASIL also develop mood and personality changes, a decline in thinking ability (dementia), memory loss, and worsening problems with movement.

Other characteristic features of CARASIL include premature hair loss (alopecia) and attacks of low back pain. The hair loss often begins during adolescence and is limited to the scalp. Back pain, which develops in early to mid-adulthood, results from the breakdown (degeneration) of the discs that separate the bones of the spine (vertebrae) from one another.

The signs and symptoms of CARASIL worsen slowly with time. Over the course of several years, affected individuals become less able to control their emotions and communicate with others. They increasingly require help with personal care and other activities of daily living; after a few years, they become unable to care for themselves. Most affected individuals die within a decade after signs and symptoms first appear, although few people with the disease have survived for 20 to 30 years.  https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/cerebral-autosomal-recessive-arteriopathy-with-subcortical-infarcts-and-leukoencephalopathy

Clinical features

From HPO
Bowel incontinence
MedGen UID:
41977
Concept ID:
C0015732
Disease or Syndrome
Involuntary fecal soiling in adults and children who have usually already been toilet trained.
Low back pain
MedGen UID:
7389
Concept ID:
C0024031
Sign or Symptom
An unpleasant sensation characterized by physical discomfort (such as pricking, throbbing, or aching) localized to the lower back.
Urinary incontinence
MedGen UID:
22579
Concept ID:
C0042024
Finding
Loss of the ability to control the urinary bladder leading to involuntary urination.
Carotid artery stenosis
MedGen UID:
785
Concept ID:
C0007282
Disease or Syndrome
Narrowing of the carotid arteries.
Transient ischemic attack
MedGen UID:
853
Concept ID:
C0007787
Disease or Syndrome
A brief attack (from a few minutes to an hour) of cerebral dysfunction of vascular origin, with no persistent neurological deficit.
Stroke disorder
MedGen UID:
52522
Concept ID:
C0038454
Disease or Syndrome
Sudden impairment of blood flow to a part of the brain due to occlusion or rupture of an artery to the brain.
Arteriosclerosis of small cerebral arteries
MedGen UID:
870813
Concept ID:
C4025270
Disease or Syndrome
Arteriosclerosis (increased thickness, increased stiffness, loss of elasticity) of the small arteries of the brain.
Anxiety
MedGen UID:
1613
Concept ID:
C0003467
Finding
Intense feelings of nervousness, tension, or panic often arise in response to interpersonal stresses. There is worry about the negative effects of past unpleasant experiences and future negative possibilities. Individuals may feel fearful, apprehensive, or threatened by uncertainty, and they may also have fears of falling apart or losing control.
Aphasia
MedGen UID:
8159
Concept ID:
C0003537
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
An acquired language impairment of some or all of the abilities to produce or comprehend speech and to read or write.
Cerebellar ataxia
MedGen UID:
849
Concept ID:
C0007758
Disease or Syndrome
Cerebellar ataxia refers to ataxia due to dysfunction of the cerebellum. This causes a variety of elementary neurological deficits including asynergy (lack of coordination between muscles, limbs and joints), dysmetria (lack of ability to judge distances that can lead to under- or overshoot in grasping movements), and dysdiadochokinesia (inability to perform rapid movements requiring antagonizing muscle groups to be switched on and off repeatedly).
Delusion
MedGen UID:
3715
Concept ID:
C0011253
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
A delusion is a fixed false belief held despite evidence to the contrary. The term delusion broadly encompasses all false judgments that possess the following external characteristics to a significant, albeit unspecified, extent
Dysarthria
MedGen UID:
8510
Concept ID:
C0013362
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
Dysarthric speech is a general description referring to a neurological speech disorder characterized by poor articulation. Depending on the involved neurological structures, dysarthria may be further classified as spastic, flaccid, ataxic, hyperkinetic and hypokinetic, or mixed.
Hallucinations
MedGen UID:
6709
Concept ID:
C0018524
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
Perceptions in a conscious and awake state that, in the absence of external stimuli, have qualities of real perception. These perceptions are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space.
Spasticity
MedGen UID:
7753
Concept ID:
C0026838
Sign or Symptom
A motor disorder characterized by a velocity-dependent increase in tonic stretch reflexes with increased muscle tone, exaggerated (hyperexcitable) tendon reflexes.
Babinski sign
MedGen UID:
19708
Concept ID:
C0034935
Finding
Upturning of the big toe (and sometimes fanning of the other toes) in response to stimulation of the sole of the foot. If the Babinski sign is present it can indicate damage to the corticospinal tract.
Hyperreflexia
MedGen UID:
57738
Concept ID:
C0151889
Finding
Hyperreflexia is the presence of hyperactive stretch reflexes of the muscles.
Abnormal pyramidal sign
MedGen UID:
68582
Concept ID:
C0234132
Sign or Symptom
Functional neurological abnormalities related to dysfunction of the pyramidal tract.
Abnormality of extrapyramidal motor function
MedGen UID:
115941
Concept ID:
C0234133
Sign or Symptom
A neurological condition related to lesions of the basal ganglia leading to typical abnormalities including akinesia (inability to initiate changes in activity and perform volitional movements rapidly and easily), muscular rigidity (continuous contraction of muscles with constant resistance to passive movement), chorea (widespread arrhythmic movements of a forcible, rapid, jerky, and restless nature), athetosis (inability to sustain the muscles of the fingers, toes, or other group of muscles in a fixed position), and akathisia (inability to remain motionless).
Dysmetria
MedGen UID:
68583
Concept ID:
C0234162
Finding
A type of ataxia characterized by the inability to carry out movements with the correct range and motion across the plane of more than one joint related to incorrect estimation of the distances required for targeted movements.
Leukoencephalopathy
MedGen UID:
78722
Concept ID:
C0270612
Disease or Syndrome
This term describes abnormality of the white matter of the cerebrum resulting from damage to the myelin sheaths of nerve cells.
Dementia
MedGen UID:
99229
Concept ID:
C0497327
Mental or Behavioral Dysfunction
A loss of global cognitive ability of sufficient amount to interfere with normal social or occupational function. Dementia represents a loss of previously present cognitive abilities, generally in adults, and can affect memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior.
Gait disturbance
MedGen UID:
107895
Concept ID:
C0575081
Finding
The term gait disturbance can refer to any disruption of the ability to walk. In general, this can refer to neurological diseases but also fractures or other sources of pain that is triggered upon walking. However, in the current context gait disturbance refers to difficulty walking on the basis of a neurological or muscular disease.
Gait apraxia
MedGen UID:
266930
Concept ID:
C1510417
Disease or Syndrome
Gait apraxia affecting the ability to make walking movements with the legs.
Progressive encephalopathy
MedGen UID:
333129
Concept ID:
C1838578
Finding
Pseudobulbar signs
MedGen UID:
374006
Concept ID:
C1838579
Sign or Symptom
Pseudobulbar signs result from injury to an upper motor neuron lesion to the corticobulbar pathways in the pyramidal tract. Patients have difficulty chewing, swallowing and demonstrate slurred speech (often initial presentation) as well as abnormal behavioral symptoms such as inappropriate emotional outbursts of uncontrolled laughter or weeping etc.
Lacunar stroke
MedGen UID:
465269
Concept ID:
C3178801
Disease or Syndrome
A stroke related to a small infarct (2-20 mm in diameter) in the deep cerebral white matter, basal ganglia, or pons, that is presumed to result from the occlusion of a single small perforating artery supplying the subcortical areas of the brain.
Diffuse white matter abnormalities
MedGen UID:
870477
Concept ID:
C4024923
Anatomical Abnormality
Diffuse demyelination of the cerebral white matter
MedGen UID:
870483
Concept ID:
C4024930
Anatomical Abnormality
A diffuse loss of myelin from nerve fibers in the central nervous system.
Brain atrophy
MedGen UID:
1643639
Concept ID:
C4551584
Disease or Syndrome
Partial or complete wasting (loss) of brain tissue that was once present.
Rigidity
MedGen UID:
7752
Concept ID:
C0026837
Sign or Symptom
Continuous involuntary sustained muscle contraction. When an affected muscle is passively stretched, the degree of resistance remains constant regardless of the rate at which the muscle is stretched. This feature helps to distinguish rigidity from muscle spasticity.
Alopecia
MedGen UID:
7982
Concept ID:
C0002170
Finding
A noncongenital process of hair loss, which may progress to partial or complete baldness.
Nystagmus
MedGen UID:
45166
Concept ID:
C0028738
Disease or Syndrome
Rhythmic, involuntary oscillations of one or both eyes related to abnormality in fixation, conjugate gaze, or vestibular mechanisms.

Recent clinical studies

Diagnosis

Mendioroz M, Fernández-Cadenas I, Del Río-Espinola A, Rovira A, Solé E, Fernández-Figueras MT, García-Patos V, Sastre-Garriga J, Domingues-Montanari S, Alvarez-Sabín J, Montaner J
Neurology 2010 Nov 30;75(22):2033-5. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181ff96ac. PMID: 21115960

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