Clinical Information

Congenital myasthenic syndromes occur as a result of compromised neuromuscular transmission. Clinical manifestations include fatigable weakness involving ocular, bulbar, and limb muscles. The severity and disease course are highly variable, but individuals usually present in infancy or early childhood. The clinical phenotype associated with a neonatal onset can include feeding difficulties, poor suck and cry, choking spells, eyelid ptosis, and muscle weakness. The clinical phenotype associated with a later childhood onset can include abnormal muscle fatigue, delayed motor milestones, ptosis, and extraocular muscle weakness.

The combination of the wide variability in symptoms and age of presentation can make congenital myasthenic syndromes hard to diagnosis. Given that congenital myasthenic syndromes are a heterogeneous group of disorders, multigene panels can be an efficient and cost-effective way to establish a molecular diagnosis for individuals. Postmortem diagnosis of a hereditary form of a congenital myasthenic syndrome may assist in confirmation of the cause of death, as well as risk assessment in living family members.(1-2)