Clinical findings in a series of 38 patients with Williams-Beuren Syndrome

Williams-Beuren syndrome is a contiguous gene syndrome caused by microdeletion of the locus 7q11.23. It is a clinically recognizable condition whose cardinal features include growth deficiency, variable degrees of neurodevelopmental disorders, congenital cardiac defects, outgoing personality, and typical facies. Case Series Presentation: This retrospective study analyzed 38 consecutive patients in a single center for rare diseases, diagnosed by Preus criteria modified by the Sugayama scoring system, comprising 17 male and 21 female individuals aged 1 month to 55 years. Cases were divided into two groups concerning (a) exclusive clinical diagnosis or (b) clinical diagnosis followed by a laboratory cytogenetic or cytogenomic test; except for hypertension, no significant difference was seen among both groups. The most frequent findings were intellectual deficiency, developmental delay, typical facies, and overfriendliness, all above 80% of the total sample. On the other hand, supravalvar aortic stenosis was found in only 32.4%, while other congenital heart diseases were seen in 56.7% of the sample. Unusual features included one individual with 13 pairs of ribs, another with unilateral microphthalmia, and three with unilateral renal agenesis. Comorbidities comprised 9 cases of hypothyroidism and 1 case each of precocious puberty, segmental vitiligo, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia.