0000000000133363
AUTHOR
Simone Isabella
Prevalence of Spinal Muscular Atrophy in the Era of Disease-Modifying Therapies: An Italian Nationwide Survey.
ObjectiveSpinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in the SMN1 gene. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of SMA and treatment prescription in Italy.MethodsAn online survey was distributed to 36 centers identified by the Italian government as referral centers for SMA. Data on the number of patients with SMA subdivided according to age, type,SMN2copy number, and treatment were collected.ResultsOne thousand two hundred fifty-five patients with SMA are currently followed in the Italian centers with an estimated prevalence of 2.12/100,000. Of the 1,255, 284 were type I, 470 type II, 467 type III, and 15 type IV with estimated prevalence of 0…
C9ORF72 hexanucleotide repeat expansions in the Italian sporadic ALS population.
It has been recently reported that a large proportion of patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familial ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are associated with a hexanucleotide (GGGGCC) repeat expansion in the first intron of C9ORF72. We have assessed 1,757 Italian sporadic ALS cases, 133 from Sardinia, 101 from Sicily, and 1,523 from mainland Italy. Sixty (3.7%) of 1,624 mainland Italians and Sicilians and 9 (6.8%) of the 133 Sardinian sporadic ALS cases carried the pathogenic repeat expansion. None of the 619 regionally-matched control samples (1,238 chromosomes) carried the expansion. Twenty-five cases (36.2%) had behavioral FTD in addition to ALS. FTD or unspecified d…