Source
Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. meilleurk@mail.nih.gov
Abstract
We identified a family in Mali with two sisters affected by spastic paraplegia. In addition to spasticity and weakness of the lower limbs, the patients had marked atrophy of the distal upper extremities. Homozygosity mapping using single nucleotide polymorphism arrays showed that the sisters shared a region of extended homozygosity at chromosome 19p13.11-q12 that was not shared by controls. These findings indicate a clinically and genetically distinct form of hereditary spastic paraplegia with amyotrophy, designated SPG43.