Genetic Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Hereditary Hearing Impairment in the Taiwanese Population

Hereditary hearing impairment (HHI) is a common but heterogeneous clinical entity caused by mutations in a plethora of deafness genes. Research over the past few decades has shown that the genetic epidemiology of HHI varies significantly across populations. In this study, we used different genetic examination strategies to address the genetic causes of HHI in a large Taiwanese cohort composed of >5000 hearing-impaired families. We also analyzed the clinical features associated with specific genetic mutations. Our results demonstrated that next-generation sequencing-based examination strategies could achieve genetic diagnosis in approximately half of the families. Common deafness-associated genes in the Taiwanese patients assessed, in the order of prevalence, included GJB2, SLC26A4, OTOF, MYO15A, and MTRNR1, which were similar to those found in other populations. However, the Taiwanese patients had some unique mutations in these genes. These findings may have important clinical implications for refining molecular diagnostics, facilitating genetic counseling, and enabling precision medicine for the management of HHI.