Rationale: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited myocardial disease and a common cause of sudden cardiac death, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke. In families affected by HCM, genotyping is useful for identifying susceptible relatives. In the present study, we investigated the disease-causing mutations in a three-generation Chinese family with HCM using whole exome sequencing (WES).
Patient concerns: The proband, a 50-year-old man, was diagnosed with HCM at the age of 41 years. He presented with an asymmetric hypertrophic interventricular septum and a maximum interventricular septum thickness of 18.04 mm. His third elder sister, niece and daughter were also clinically affected by HCM.
Diagnosis: Autosomal dominant HCM.
Interventions: Seven family members, including 4 affected members, accepted WES. The genetic variants were subsequently called using Genome Analysis Toolkit and annotated using the InterVar program. Following frequency filtration by the Genome Aggregation Database, the variants were evaluated using an in-house bioinformatics analysis pipeline.
Outcomes: HCM was transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait in the family. An extremely rare stop gained mutation, rs796925245 (g.1:201359630G>A, c.835C>T, p.Gln279Ter) in the troponin T2 (TNNT2) gene was identified as the disease-causing mutation. The stop gained mutation was predicted to result in a truncated troponin T protein in cardiac sarcomere. An adolescent family member who had normal echocardiographic measurements was found to carry the same disease-causing mutation.
Lessons: A novel nonsense TNNT2 mutation was identified as the HCM-causing mutation in this Chinese pedigree. Since HCM shows a low penetrance by clinical criteria in adolescents, the adolescent mutation carrier, who is still clinically unaffected, should be offered routine follow-ups and sport activity recommendations to prevent adverse events including sudden cardiac death in the future.