Rapid molecular genetic diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by semiconductor sequencing

BACKGROUND: Rapidly determining the complex genetic basis of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is vital to better understanding and optimally managing this common polygenetic cardiovascular disease. METHODS: A rapid custom Ion-amplicon-resequencing assay, covering 30 commonly affected genes of HCM, was developed and validated in 120 unrelated patients with HCM to facilitate genetic diagnosis of this disease. With this HCM-specific panel and only 20 ng of input genomic DNA, physicians can, for the first time, go from blood samples to variants within a single day. RESULTS: On average, this approach gained 595628 mapped reads per sample, 95.51% reads on target (64.06 kb), 490-fold base coverage depth and 93.24% uniformity of base coverage in CDS regions of the 30 HCM genes. After validation, we detected underlying pathogenic variants in 87% (104 of 120) samples. Tested seven randomly selected HCM genes in eight samples by Sanger sequencing, the sensitivity and false-positive-rate of this HCM panel was 100% and 5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This Ion amplicon HCM resequencing assay provides a currently most rapid, comprehensive, cost-effective and reliable measure for genetic diagnosis of HCM in routinely obtained samples.