Deafness
Hearing loss (irrespective of its degree commonly termed “deafness”) is the most common sensory deficit in humans, affecting approximately 1 in 500 newborns. Deafness has a genetic basis in two-thirds of patients. Mutations in around 100 genes have been identified as causes, and many more are likely to be found in future research. Genetic deafness does not always manifest in infancy, onset may also be in adulthood.
Medical care for childhood deafness should include, besides early support by hearing aids or cochlear implants, genetic counselling of the patients’ parents. It is essential to determine the cause of deafness (environmental versus genetic) – if genetic, the differentiation between isolated (non-syndromic) and syndromic deafness (that involves other organs) is decisive for the medical management. In children who failed in newborn hearing screening, molecular genetic testing should therefore be offered to the parents.
Isolated hearing deficit or part of a syndrome?
30% of children with an apparently isolated hearing deficit have a syndrome whose additional manifestations will manifest later in life. The most frequent deafness syndrome is Usher syndrome, affecting about 10% of children with congenital or early-onset hearing loss. In Usher syndrome, additional retinal degeneration begins in childhood or adolescence and may progress to severe visual impairment and even blindness. Clinically, the retinal affection cannot yet be detected in infancy. Today, the molecular genetic analysis may differentiate between isolated and syndromic deafness and predict extra-cochlear manifestations soon after the clinical diagnosis of hearing impairment. The most important syndromes affect the kidneys (Alport syndrome), the thyroid gland (Pendred syndrome) and the heart (Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome, SANDD syndrome).
The genetic diagnosis may hence guide the individual medical care, with regular consultation of the respective specialists (e.g. ophthalmologists or cardiologists) to detect additional symptoms early.
Moreover, the genetic diagnosis enables the precise determination of the recurrence risk, e.g. allowing to prepare for birth of another affected child. Finally, the determination of the underlying mutation largely excludes exogenic/environmental factors (such as infections), also in hearing impairment of later onset.
Request form: hearing loss/deafness
Further special expertise
Inherited eye diseases
Many eye diseases have a genetic basis. The knowledge of the underlying gene defect has far-reaching consequences for the individual medical care and guidance of patients and their families.
Hereditary Cancers
Familial clustering of cancers may indicate that hereditary factors play an important role for cancer development in such families. Genetic counselling and molecular genetic diagnostics may enable targeted preventive screening measures and might be important for individual treatment in some tumour entities.
Disorders of the nervous system
Numerous disorders of the nervous system may be due to genetic causes and they may be part of a syndrome affecting other organs. A genetic diagnosis may avoid stressful examinations and pave the way for an anticipatory disease management or even therapeutic options.
Malignant hyperthermia
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a hereditary metabolic myopathy triggered by certain anaesthetics. The molecular genetic testing in patients with suspected MH and the predictive genetic testing of at-risk asymptomatic family members enables an accurate diagnosis with just a blood sample.
