Patient 1 is a girl aged 5 years and 9 months, the first child of a healthy nonconsanguineous couple. Her psychomotor milestones were profoundly delayed, with raising head at 8 months, sitting alone at 1 year old, and still unable to walk by herself at 5 years and 9 months. Poor eye contact, hand clapping, hand wringing and bruxism were observed at 1 year old, followed by deterioration of hand skills. Epileptic attack occurred at 20 months old, and she responded to valproate (VPA), oxcarbazepine (OXC), and topiramate (TPM) combined therapy. Seizure free was achieved at 5.5 years old. EEG demonstrated spike-slow waves at right medial and posterior temporal, with generalization. MRI (1 year old) revealed enlargement of frontal subarachnoid space. Above manifestations led to the diagnosis of typical RTT. However, mutational analysis of MECP2, CDKL5 and FOXG1 was negative. Through this study, a de novo missense MEF2C mutation, c.48C > G, p.Asn16Lys, was identified, which was a novel mutation.
Patient 3 is a 23-month-old girl who presented with RTT-like features. Feeding difficulties caused concern at 3 months of age. No epilepsy was observed, though she had medical history of febrile convulsions at 9 months old. There was significant delay in her developmental milestones, without obvious retrogression. She could sit alone at 1 year old, and walk at 23 months of age, with abnormal gaits. Unmeaningful language began at 12 months. She also presented with poor eye contact, stereotypic actions, breathing disturbance, and sleeping abnormalities. She suffered from recurrent respiratory infections frequently after 15 months of age. MRI revealed hypomyelination at 1 year and 10 months of age. A novel nonsense mutation, c.334G > T, p.Glu112*, in MEF2C was identified.