TY - JOUR PY - 2023// TI - Reevaluation of ambiguous genetic variants in sudden unexplained deaths of a young cohort JO - International journal of legal medicine A1 - Martinez-Barrios, Estefanía A1 - Sarquella-Brugada, Georgia A1 - Perez-Serra, Alexandra A1 - Fernandez-Falgueras, Anna A1 - Cesar, Sergi A1 - Alcalde, Mireia A1 - Coll, Monica A1 - Puigmulé, Marta A1 - Iglesias, Anna A1 - Ferrer-Costa, Carles A1 - Del Olmo, Bernat A1 - Picó, Ferran A1 - López, Laura A1 - Fiol, Victoria A1 - Cruzalegui, José A1 - Hernandez, Clara A1 - Arbelo, Elena A1 - Díez-Escuté, Nuria A1 - Cerralbo, Patricia A1 - Grassi, Simone A1 - Oliva, Antonio A1 - Toro, Rocío A1 - Brugada, Josep A1 - Brugada, Ramon A1 - Campuzano, Oscar SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Sudden death cases in the young population remain without a conclusive cause of decease in almost 40% of cases. In these situations, cardiac arrhythmia of genetic origin is suspected as the most plausible cause of death. Molecular autopsy may reveal a genetic defect in up to 20% of families. Most than 80% of rare variants remain classified with an ambiguous role, impeding a useful clinical translation. Our aim was to update rare variants originally classified as of unknown significance to clarify their role. Our cohort included fifty-one post-mortem samples of young cases who died suddenly and without a definite cause of death. Five years ago, molecular autopsy identified at least one rare genetic alteration classified then as ambiguous following the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics' recommendations. We have reclassified the same rare variants including novel data. About 10% of ambiguous variants change to benign/likely benign mainly because of improved population frequencies. Excluding cases who died before one year of age, almost 21% of rare ambiguous variants change to benign/likely benign. This fact makes it important to discard these rare variants as a cause of sudden unexplained death, avoiding anxiety in relatives' carriers. Twenty-five percent of the remaining variants show a tendency to suspicious deleterious role, highlighting clinical follow-up of carriers. Periodical reclassification of rare variants originally classified as ambiguous is crucial, at least updating frequencies every 5 years. This action aids to increase accuracy to enable and conclude a cause of death as well as translation into the clinic.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0937-9827 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-02951-0 ID - ref1 ER -