Hypoparathyroidism as the major manifestation in two patients with 22q11 deletions

We report on two adolescents with 22q11 deletion. Their main clinical manifestation was chronic symptomatic hypocalcemia secondary to hypoparathyroidism, together with seizures and cerebral calcifications. Neither congenital cardiac abnormality nor T cell deficiency were detected. The phenotypic manifestations of the observed patients were consistent with velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS). A microdeletion of chromosome region 22q11 has been demonstrated in approximately 90% of DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) patients and in 75% of VCFS patients; the association of the deletion with a wide spectrum of clinical findings suggests the existence of a contiguous gene syndrome. The presence of certain traits of DGS/VCFS should lead to investigations of the parathyroid function and molecular analysis of the 22q11 region hybridization studies.