J Korean Med Sci.  2003 Feb;18(1):141-144. 10.3346/jkms.2003.18.1.141.

A Novel Mutation (C67Y) in the NOTCH3 Gene in a Korean CADASIL Patient

• Na DL
• Moon SY
• Kim HY
• Seok JI
• Kwon JC
• Ki CS
• Kim JW
• Suh YL

• KMID: 1099812
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2003.18.1.141

Abstract

We report a 52-yr-old Korean woman with cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) whose diagnosis was confirmed by skin biopsy and the presence of a novel mutation in the NOTCH3 gene. The patient's clinical features were rather unusual in that 1) clinical presentations were only two episodes of stroke and mild dementia unaccompanied by mood disturbances or migraine, and 2) there was no family history. Brain MRI showed T2 hyperintensities in both temporal pole areas in line with the recent suggestion by O'Sullivan et al. that the abnormality could be a radiologic marker of CADASIL. FDG-PET also showed a hypometabolism in the temporal pole areas with an abnormal finding on MRI in addition to the hypometabolism in cortical and subcortical regions. We could learn from this case that CADASIL may be included in the differential diagnoses in patients with vascular dementia associated with a small vessel disease, even in the absence of a family history, especially when there are no known stroke risk factors and when the MRI shows T2 hyperintensity in the temporal pole regions.

Keyword

CADASIL; Dementia, Multi-infarct; Tomography; Emission-Computed; The NOTCH3 Gene; Polymorphism (Genetics)

MeSH Terms

Amino Acid Substitution
Biopsy
Brain/pathology
Codon/genetics
Dementia, Multi-Infarct/diagnosis
Dementia, Multi-Infarct/genetics*
Dementia, Multi-Infarct/pathology
Dementia, Multi-Infarct/radionuclide imaging
Female
Human
Korea
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Middle Aged
Mutation, Missense*
Neuropsychological Tests
Point Mutation*
Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics*
Skin/pathology
Tomography, Emission-Computed