Four new cases of congenital secondary hypothyroidism due to a splice site mutation in the thyrotropin-beta gene: Phenotypic variability and founder effect

WOS: 000223072400081 PubMed ID: 15292359 Isolated TSH deficiency is a rare cause of congenital hypothyroidism. We here report four children from two consanguineous Turkish families with isolated TSH deficiency. Affected children who were screened at newborn age had an unremarkable TSH result and a low serum TSH level at diagnosis. Age at diagnosis and clinical phenotype were variable. All affected children carried an identical homozygous splice site mutation (IVS2 + 5 Gdouble right arrowA) in the TSHbeta gene. This mutation leads to skipping of exon 2 and a loss of the translational start codon without ability to produce a TSH-like protein. However, using specific monoclonal antibodies, we …