Variability of platyspondylic lethal chondrodysplasia: another case report

We report the radiological and histological findings of another case of platyspondylic lethal chondrodysplasia. The patient was a girl, who died of respiratory failure at 18 days of age. The radiological changes comprised moderate platyspondyly with ovoid-shaped vertebral bodies, broad and short ilia, rhizomelic shortening and mild bowing of the long bones (particularly of the humeri), relatively long short tubular bones, and retarded epiphyseal ossification and ragged metaphyses, which were most similar to those of a mild variant of this entity, the Luton type. However, the histological findings of cartilage, including hypercellularity of the reserve zone with round resting chondrocytes, relatively normal column formation of the proliferative and hypertrophic zones, and incorporation of hypertrophic cartilage with a columnar arrangement into metaphyseal bony trabeculae, resemble those of a severe variant of this entity, the Torrance type. Our observation provides an insight into the phenotypic variabilities of platyspondylic lethal chondrodysplasia. Clin Dysmorphol 7: 195-200. (C) 1998 Lippincott-Raven Publishers.