Network Of Clinical Research Studies On Craniosynostosis, Skull Malformations With Premature Fusion Of Skull Bones

ID#: NCT03025763

Age: Birth - 80 years

Gender: All

Healthy Subjects: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Recruitment Status: Recruiting

Start Date: November 01, 2014

End Date: June 01, 2029

Contact Information:
Ethylin Wang Jabs, MD
212-241-3504
Summary: Craniosynostosis (CS) is a common malformation occurring in ~4 per 10,000 live births in which the sutures between skull bones close too early, causing long-term problems with brain and skull growth. Infants with CS typically require extensive surgical treatment and may experience many perioperative complications, including hemorrhage and re-synostosis. Even with successful surgery, children can experience developmental and learning disabilities or vision problems. Most often, CS appears as isolated nonsyndromic CS (NSC). Of the several subtypes of CS, unilateral or bilateral fusion of the coronal suture is the second most common form of CS accounting for 20-30% of all NSC cases. The etiology of coronal NSC (cNSC) is not well understood, although the published literature suggests that it is a multifactorial condition. About 5-14% of coronal craniosynostosis patients have a positive family history, with a specific genetic etiology identified in >25% of cNSC cases, suggesting a strong genetic component in the pathogenesis of this birth defect. The causes for cNSC and its phenotypic heterogeneity remain largely unknown. An international team of investigators will generate large genomic and gene expression datasets on samples from patients with cNSC. State-of-the-art imaging, genetic, and developmental and systems biology approaches will be used to quantitatively model novel pathways and networks involved in the development of cNSC. Novel variant-, gene- and network-level analyses will be performed on the genomic data obtained from cNSC cases, their relatives, and controls to identify novel variants and genetic regions associated with cNCS. Quantitative, analytical, and functional validations of these predictions will provide insights into the etiology and possible therapeutic targets for CS and potentially other bone-related disorders.
Eligibility:

Inclusion Criteria:

- Cases with diagnosis of coronal

- Unaffected relatives of cases

- Unaffected controls including those who may have undergone clinically indicated craniofacial surgery for trauma or conditions other than craniosynostosis or bone disease. These individuals will be recruited at some of the other collaborating institutions, but not at Mount Sinai. Individuals of any racial or ethnic group with the established or suspected clinical diagnosis of coronal, nonsyndromic craniosynostosis will be included in this study. Unaffected relatives, such as their biological parents and/or sibs, will also be included to contribute medical information and samples as negative controls for our study.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Those who fit the criteria, but who choose not to participate

- Those who do not meet the criteria.

- Other than children, no vulnerable individuals will be recruited, such as intellectual impaired individuals or prisoners.
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