Bamforth Syndrome

A very rare syndrome of congenital hypothyroidism with characteristics of thyroid dysgenesis, cleft palate and spiky hair, with or without choanal atresia, and bifid epiglottis. Facial dysmorphism and porencephaly have been reported in isolated cases. Only 8 patients from 6 families have been reported to date. Newborns present at birth with thyroid dysgenesis (in most cases athyreosis) leading to congenital hypothyroidism that manifests with lethargy, poor feeding, macroglossia, cold or mottled skin, persistent jaundice and umbilical hernia. All newborns have a cleft palate and spiky hair. The syndrome is due to homozygous loss-of-function missense mutations located within the forkhead domain of the FOXE1 gene (9q22), encoding thyroid transcription factor 2 (TTF-2). TTF-2 is expressed in the thyroid gland (as well as elsewhere like the tongue, epiglottis and palate) and is thought to play a crucial role in thyroid morphogenesis. The disease is inherited autosomal recessively.