Studies of malformation syndromes in man XXXVI: the Pfeiffer syndrome, association with Kleeblattschädel and multiple visceral anomalies. Case report and review

Z Kinderheilkd. 1975;119(2):87-103. doi: 10.1007/BF00443563.

Abstract

This paper reports sporadic occurrence of the Pfeiffer syndrome with Kleeblattschädel (KS) in a male infant who died at 6 months of pneumonia with signs of increased intracranial pressure and who was found to have hydrocephalus, polymicrogyria, cerebellar herniation, bicuspid aortic valve, a common mesentery, absence of lesser omentum, hypoplasia of gallbladder, a single umbilical artery, and multiple eye defects. This case is presumed to represent a new mutation: in other families the Pfeiffer syndrome has been dominantly inherited. The Pfeiffer syndrome is a form of acrocephalosyndactyly and impresses clinically as a mild form of the Apert syndrome. The Kleeblattschädel is an etiologically non-specific developmental field defect (DFC); about two fifths of 51 known cases have apparent thanatophoric dwarfism and about one fifth are probable or possible examples of the Pfeiffer syndrome. The KS-DFC has also been seen in the syndromes of Carpenter, Apert and Crouzon.

MeSH terms

  • Abnormalities, Multiple / diagnosis*
  • Acrocephalosyndactylia / diagnosis*
  • Autopsy
  • Brain / pathology
  • Craniofacial Dysostosis / complications
  • Dwarfism / complications
  • Exophthalmos / complications
  • Humans
  • Hydrocephalus / complications
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Skull / abnormalities*
  • Syndrome