Korean J Pathol.  1999 Nov;33(11):1090-1093.

Williams Syndrome in an Infant An autopsy case report

• Kie JH
• Kim SH
• Choi JY
• Cho SH

Abstract

Williams syndrome is a congenital disorder characterized by mental retardation, loquacious personalities, dysmorphic face, and vascular and valvular abnormalities. The etiology of this syndrome was one allelic loss of elastin gene, exhibiting a submicroscopic deletion, at 7q11.23. Sudden death is an infrequently recognized complication. The mechanism of sudden death is explained by myocardial ischemia, decreased cardiac output, and arrhythmia by anatomical abnormality of coronary artery stenosis and severe biventricular outflow tract obstruction. We report an autopsy case of a 80 day-old male with Williams syndrome. Five days before admission, cardiac murmur was detected incidentally on ascultation at a local clinic during a visit for vaccination. He was transferred to our hospital and cardiac catheterization was done. He died suddenly next day. Postmortem examination revealed a dysmorphic face and multiple cardiovascular abnormalities including supravalvular aortic stenosis with narrowed coronary artery ostia, supravalvular pulmonic stenosis, secundum type of atrial septal defect, right ventricular hypertrophy, and renal artery stenosis. Histologically, aorta and pulmonary, bronchial, and renal arteries showed markedly hyperplastic medial elastic laminae approximately three times thick compared to those of age-matched normal artery. The elastic fibers of the innermost two thirds of media were disposed in a normal orderly parallel fashion. In outer third of the media, the elastic fibers had lost the normal orderly arrangement.

Keyword

Williams syndrome; Elastin gene; Hyperplastic elastic lamina

MeSH Terms

Aorta
Aortic Stenosis, Supravalvular
Arrhythmias, Cardiac
Arteries
Autopsy*
Cardiac Catheterization
Cardiac Catheters
Cardiac Output
Cardiovascular Abnormalities
Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities
Coronary Stenosis
Coronary Vessels
Death, Sudden
Elastic Tissue
Elastin
Heart Murmurs
Heart Septal Defects, Atrial
Humans
Hypertrophy, Right Ventricular
Infant*
Intellectual Disability
Loss of Heterozygosity
Male
Myocardial Ischemia
Pulmonary Valve Stenosis
Renal Artery
Renal Artery Obstruction
Vaccination
Williams Syndrome*
Elastin