Waardenburg's Syndrome in Six Generations of One Family

Introduction SINCE Waardenburg's description in 1950 1 of a syndrome characterized by certain congenital abnormalities affecting the eyelids, in association with pigmentary defects in the irides and congenital deafness, increasing recognition of this condition has occurred in the foreign literature. At present, case reports come from England, Canada, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, Israel, India, New Zealand, and Japan. In this country, Di George et al 2 in 1960, for the first time, brought this little known syndrome to the attention of the American readers. A discovery of a family with Waardenburg's syndrome by one of us in 1963 prompted a search for additional cases in the American journals. A review at that time disclosed only one other paper, written by Stettelmayer and Hogan and published in 1961. 3 It was their purpose to show that Waardenburg's syndrome could occur in a patient of mixed American heritage. Our reasons