Identification of Associated Genes and Diseases in Patients With Congenital Upper-Limb Anomalies: A Novel Application of the OMT Classification

Congenital Upper-Limb Differences: A 6-Year Literature Review

➤ The Oberg-Manske-Tonkin (OMT) classification of congenital hand and upper-limb anomalies continues to be refined as our understanding of the genetic and embryonic etiology of limb anomalies improves.➤ We have conducted an evaluation of graft and graftless techniques for syndactyly reconstruction; strengths and drawbacks exist for each technique.➤ Treatment for radial longitudinal deficiency remains controversial; however, radialization has shown promise in early follow-up for severe deformities.➤ Recent emphasis on psychosocial aspects of care has demonstrated that children with congenital upper-limb differences demonstrate good peer relationships and marked adaptability.

Recent Advancements in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Hand Differences

Congenital hand and upper limb differences include a wide spectrum of structural abnormalities that affect functional, appearance, and psychosocial domains of affected children. Ongoing advances in the understanding and treatment of these differences continue to shape management. Over the past 10 years, new developments have been made in areas of molecular genetics, noninvasive treatments, surgical techniques, and outcome measures in several commonly seen congenital hand differences. Applying these advances in knowledge and management of congenital hand differences will enable surgeons to achieve the best outcomes possible for these children.

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in children with interstitial lung disease: Determine etiologies!

OBJECTIVE

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) in children is a rare condition resulting from different underlying diseases. This study aimed at describing characteristics and diagnostic measures in children with ILD (children's interstitial lung disease, chILD) and DAH to improve the diagnostic approach by increasing clinician's awareness of diagnostic shortcomings.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A retrospective data analysis of patients with ILD and DAH treated in our own or collaborating centers between 01/07/1997 and 31/12/2020 was performed. Data on clinical courses and diagnostic measures were systematically retrieved as case-vignettes and investigated. To assess suitability of diagnostic software-algorithms, the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) was revised and expanded to optimize conditions of its associated tool the "Phenomizer."

RESULTS

For 97 (74%) of 131 patients, etiology of pulmonary hemorrhage was clarified. For 34 patients (26%), no underlying condition was found (termed as idiopathic pulmonary hemorrhage, IPH). Based on laboratory findings or clinical phenotype/comorbidities, 20 of these patients were assigned to descriptive clusters: IPH associated with autoimmune features (9), eosinophilia (5), renal disease (3) or multiorgan involvement (3). For 14 patients, no further differentiation was possible.

CONCLUSION

Complete and sometimes repeated diagnostics are essential for establishing the correct diagnosis in children with DAH. We suggest assignment of patients with IPH to descriptive clusters, which may also guide further research. Digital tools such as the Phenomizer/HPO are promising, but need to be extended to increase diagnostic accuracy.

The unsolved problem of radial longitudinal dysplasia: how can we reliably prevent recurrence, preserve growth and optimize function?

Congenital radial longitudinal dysplasia remains an 'unsolved problem' in hand surgery. The challenges presented by the skeletal deficiency of the distal radius and soft tissue dysplasia of the severe radial longitudinal deficiency have been addressed by a number of techniques that aim to stabilize the position of the hand relative to the forearm and optimize forearm growth and hand function. Analysis of hand function and position in these children is difficult because of the abnormal 'wrist' mechanics, and the published results of the techniques used to date often lack a standardized approach and importantly the perception of function from the patient's perspective. The existing data is reviewed and compared with the results of cohorts from two major congenital upper limb centres. Soft tissue distraction prior to radialization or centralization may offer benefit in ulnar growth and forearm length but there is a need for further research into the long-term functional outcomes of the various techniques available to determine the optimal choice for these children.Level of evidence: V.

BERT-Based Clinical Name Entity Reorganization Model for Health Diagnosis

The National Health and Family Planning Commission requires medical institutions to use the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. However, due to many commonly used words in clinical disease descriptions, the direct mapping matching rate between the diagnosis names entered in the electronic medical records and the ICD codes is low. In this paper, based on the actual diagnostic data on the regional health platform, a disease term map incorporating standard terms was constructed. Specifically, based on the rule algorithm based on the components of the disease, a data-enhanced BERT (bidirectional encoder representation from transformers) upper and lower relationship recognition algorithm is proposed. Synonymous upper and lower relationships identify diseases, and the hierarchical structure is further integrated. In addition, a task assignment based on the association map of disease departments is also proposed. Methods were used for manual verification, and finally, 94,478 disease entities formed a large-scale disease term map, including 1,460 synonymous relationships and 46,508 hyponymous relationships. Evaluation experiments show that, based on the disease term map and clinical diagnosis, the coverage rate of diagnostic data is 75.31% higher than direct mapping coding based on ICD. In addition, using the disease term map to code diseases automatically will shorten the coding time by about 59.75% compared with manual coding by doctors, and the correct rate is 85%.

What's New in Congenital Hand Surgery

BACKGROUND

Congenital conditions of the hand and upper extremity are a frequent source of consultation among pediatric orthopaedists and hand surgeons. Advances in the fields of molecular biology and genetics have helped to better understand some of these conditions and redefine previous classification systems. New outcome measurement tools have been used to assess surgical results and have brought into focus a different aspect of the patients' experience.

METHODS

We searched PubMed database for papers related to the treatment of congenital hand anomalies published from January 1, 2015 to October 31, 2018. The search was limited to English articles yielding 207 papers. Three pediatric hand surgeons selected the articles based upon the criteria that the topic was germane, the article fell under the subheadings within the manuscript, and the conclusions were meaningful.

RESULTS

A total of 40 papers were selected for review, based upon their quality and new findings. Research articles with significant findings were included for syndactyly, symbrachydactyly, cleft hand, polydactyly, radial longitudinal deficiency, congenital radio-ulnar synostosis, and macrodactyly.

CONCLUSIONS

Our knowledge of the embryology and pathophysiology of congenital upper extremity conditions continues to evolve. Functional assessments combined with patient and parent-reported outcomes have our understanding of the results following surgical procedures. Further research and standardization of our scientific data will provide better answers and higher quality of evidence.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level V-literature review and expert opinion.

Diagnosis support systems for rare diseases: a scoping review

INTRODUCTION

Rare diseases affect approximately 350 million people worldwide. Delayed diagnosis is frequent due to lack of knowledge of most clinicians and a small number of expert centers. Consequently, computerized diagnosis support systems have been developed to address these issues, with many relying on rare disease expertise and taking advantage of the increasing volume of generated and accessible health-related data. Our objective is to perform a review of all initiatives aiming to support the diagnosis of rare diseases.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted based on methods proposed by Arksey and O'Malley. A charting form for relevant study analysis was developed and used to categorize data.

RESULTS

Sixty-eight studies were retained at the end of the charting process. Diagnosis targets varied from 1 rare disease to all rare diseases. Material used for diagnosis support consisted mostly of phenotype concepts, images or fluids. Fifty-seven percent of the studies used expert knowledge. Two-thirds of the studies relied on machine learning algorithms, and one-third used simple similarities. Manual algorithms were encountered as well. Most of the studies presented satisfying performance of evaluation by comparison with references or with external validation. Fourteen studies provided online tools, most of which aimed to support the diagnosis of all rare diseases by considering queries based on phenotype concepts.

CONCLUSION

Numerous solutions relying on different materials and use of various methodologies are emerging with satisfying preliminary results. However, the variability of approaches and evaluation processes complicates the comparison of results. Efforts should be made to adequately validate these tools and guarantee reproducibility and explicability.

Classification of congenital upper limb anomalies: towards improved communication, diagnosis, and discovery

Recently the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand replaced the Swanson scheme for classifying congenital upper limb anomalies with the Oberg, Manske, Tonkin (OMT) classification. This review explores the reasons for this change after nearly 50 years of using the Swanson classification. In particular, it documents the state of our understanding regarding genetics and limb development at the time Swanson generated his classification. It also describes the continued progress in clinical genetics and developmental biology. Such progress drives the need to embrace and incorporate these changes within a new classification scheme; one that will improve communication, diagnosis, and support further discovery of the pathogenesis of congenital hand anomalies.

Preaxial polydactyly of the foot

Background and purpose - Preaxial polydactyly of the foot is a rare malformation and clinicians are often unfamiliar with the associated malformations and syndromes. In order to give guidelines for diagnostics and referral to a clinical geneticist, we provide an overview of the presentation using a literature review and our own patient population. Patients and methods - The literature review was based on the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) project. From the HPO dataset, all phenotypes describing preaxial polydactyly were obtained and related diseases were identified and selected. An overview was generated in a heatmap, in which the phenotypic contribution of 12 anatomical groups to each disease is displayed. Clinical cases were obtained from our hospital database and were reviewed in terms of phenotype, genotype, heredity, and diagnosed syndromes. Results - From the HPO dataset, 21 diseases were related to preaxial polydactyly of the foot. The anatomical groups with the highest phenotypic contribution were lower limb, upper limb, and craniofacial. From our clinical database, we included 76 patients with 9 different diseases, of which 27 had a GLI3 mutation. Lower limb malformations (n = 55), upper limb malformations (n = 59), and craniofacial malformations (n = 32) were most frequently observed. Malformations in other anatomical groups were observed in 27 patients. Interpretation - Preaxial polydactyly of the foot often presents with other upper and lower limb malformations. In patients with isolated preaxial polydactyly of the foot, referral to a clinical geneticist is not mandatory. In patients with additional malformations, consultation with a clinical geneticist is recommended. When additional limb malformations are present, analysis of GLI3 is most feasible.