Chromosome microarray analysis in the investigation of children with congenital heart disease

BACKGROUND Our study was aimed to explore the clinical implication of chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) in genetically etiological diagnosis of children with congenital heart disease (CHD). METHODS A total of 104 children with CHD with or without multiple congenital anomalies (MCA) or intellectual disabilities/developmental delay (ID/DD) but normal karyotype were investigated using Affymetrix CytoScan HD array. RESULT Pathogenic copy number variations (PCNVs) were identified in 29 children (27.9%). The detection rates in children with simple CHD and complex CHD were 31.1% (19/61) and 23.2% (10/43), respectively. The detection rates of PCNVs were 17.9% (7/39), 20% (5/25), 63.2% (12/19) and 23.8% (5/21) in isolated CHD, CHD plus MCA, CHD plus ID/DD, CHD plus MCA and ID/DD, respectively. The PCNVs rate of CHD plus ID/DD was significantly higher than that of isolated CHD. Two genomic loci including 15q11.2 deletion and 1q43-q44 deletion were considered as CHD locus. The DVL1, SKI, STIM1, CTNNA3 and PLN were identified as candidate genes associated with CHD phenotypes. CONCLUSION CMA can increase the diagnostic rate and improve the etiological diagnosis in children with CHD. We suggest CMA as a first-tier test in children with CHD, especially in children with CHD plus ID/DD.