Co-occurrence of Moyamoya syndrome and Kartagener syndrome caused by the mutation of DNAH5 and DNAH11: a case report

BACKGROUND: Kartagener syndrome is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder of primary ciliary dyskinesia. Moyamoya syndrome refers to a moyamoya angiopathy associated with other neurological and/or extra-neurological symptoms, or due to a well identified acquired or inherited cause. We herein reported a case of a 48-year-old woman who was favored the diagnosis of Kartagener syndrome and moyamoya syndrome. The whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed a homozygotic nonsense mutation in the dynein, axonemal, heavy chain (DNAH) 5 gene, and heterozygotic missense mutation in the DNAH11 gene. This is the first report of the co-occurrence of the two rare diseases. CASE PRESENTATION: A case of a 48-year-old woman was presented with hemiplegia and slurred speech. The magnetic resonance imaging of the brain confirmed acute cerebral infarction in the right basal ganglia region, semi-oval center, insular lobe, and frontal parietal lobe. The electrocardiogram showed inverted “P” waves in L1 and AVL on left-sided chest leads and computed tomography scan of the chest showed bronchiectasis changes, cardiac shadow and apex on the right side, and situs inversus of aortic arch position. The digital subtraction angiography showed inversion of the aortic arch, and bilateral internal carotid arteries are occluded from the ophthalmic segment. The clinical, radiological, and laboratory findings made the diagnosis of Kartagener syndrome and moyamoya syndrome. The whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed a homozygotic nonsense mutation in DNAH5 gene, and heterozygotic missense mutation in the DNAH11 gene. CONCLUSION: The combined mutation of DNAH5 and DNAH11 may lead to the overlapping dysfunction of motile and nonmotile cilia, which contribute to the co-occurrence of Kartagener syndrome and moyamoya syndrome. Our report deserves further confirm by more case reports.