Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Spontaneous cervical artery dissections (sCAD) often occur in otherwise healthy individuals without known risk factors for stroke and frequently develop spontaneously without relevant trauma. An underlying arteriopathy leading to a so-called 'weakness of the vessel wall' and predisposing certain individuals to dissection has often been postulated. Therefore, the morphology of connective tissue, a main component of vessel wall and environment, was investigated in carotids and skin. While the overall morphology of dermal connective tissue is normal, about half of patients with sCAD show mild ultrastructural connective tissue alterations. These ultrastructural morphological aberrations can be designated either as 'Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) III-like', resembling mild findings in patients with the hypermobility type of EDS (EDS III); or coined 'EDS IV-like' with collagen fibers containing fibrils with highly variable diameters resembling mild findings in vascular EDS; or the abnormalities are restricted to the elastic fibers (with fragmentation and minicalcifications) without significant alterations in the morphology of the collagen fibrils. These findings had some similarity with the morphology found in heterozygous carriers of pseudoxanthoma elasticum. A grading scale according to the severity of the findings has been introduced. Similar connective tissue abnormalities were detected in some first-degree relatives of patients with sCAD showing hereditary at least in a subgroup. They can serve as a phenotypic marker for further genetic studies in patients with sCAD and large families to possibly identify the underlying basic molecular defect(s). Very few of patients (<5%) with sCAD and connective tissue abnormalities have clinical manifestations of skin, joint, or skeletal abnormalities of a defined heritable connective tissue disorder. In specimens of arterial walls of carotid, aortic, and renal arteries of patients with sCAD, pronounced systemic, histopathological, and ultrastructural abnormalities were detected with elastic fiber fragmentation and medial degeneration, described before only in a few patients with known hereditary connective tissue diseases such as the Marfan syndrome. We hypothesize that a major part of sCAD cases represents a manifestation of a connective tissue disorder with a vascular phenotype.
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PMID:Association of cervical artery dissection with connective tissue abnormalities in skin and arteries. 1729 Jan 8

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a heritable connective tissue disorder characterized by ocular, cutaneous and cardiovascular manifestations. It is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene (chr. 16p13.1), encoding a transmembrane transporter protein, the substrate and biological function of which are currently unknown. A comprehensive clinical and molecular study of 38 Belgian PXE probands and 21 relatives (4 affected and 17 carriers) was performed. An extensive clinical evaluation protocol was implemented with serial fundus, skin and cardiovascular evaluation. We report on 14 novel mutations in the ABCC6 gene. We observed extensive variability in severity of both cutaneous and ocular lesions. The type of skin lesion however usually remained identical throughout the evolution of the disorder, while ophthalmological progression was mainly due to functional decline. Peripheral artery disease (53%) and stroke (15%) were significantly more prevalent than in the general population (10-30% and 0.3-0.5% respectively). Interestingly, we also observed a relatively high incidence of subclinical peripheral artery disease (41%) in our carrier population. We highlight the significance of peripheral artery disease and stroke in PXE patients as well as the subclinical manifestations in carriers. Through follow-up data we gained insight into the natural history of PXE. We propose a cost- and time-efficient two-step method of ABCC6 analysis which can be used in different populations. Additionally, we created a diagnostic flowchart and attempted to define the role of molecular analysis of ABCC6 in the work-up of a PXE patient.
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PMID:Novel clinico-molecular insights in pseudoxanthoma elasticum provide an efficient molecular screening method and a comprehensive diagnostic flowchart. 1815 18