Wildervanck’s syndrome and mirror movements: a congenital disorder of axon migration?

Cell outgrowth and migration in the developing nervous system result from guidance cues, whose molecular bases and clinical correlates are only partly known. We describe a patient with brain stem malformation, paroxysmal left sided lacrimation when eating (“crocodile tears”) and mirror movements in addition to Wildervanck’s cervico-oculo-acusticus (COA) syndrome, which encompasses Klippel–Feil anomaly, congenital hearing loss and Duane’s syndrome. The unique symptom constellation has not been reported in that combination before and can be discussed in the context of congenital disordered axonal migration based on dysfunction of signalling pathways. However, mutations in some recently discovered genes, associated with single findings also present in our patient, were not found. Therefore, we suppose that the disturbance of an as yet unknown regulatory factor may explain the congenital malformation syndrome of our patient. In general, only a few human disorders have yet been found to result from defects in axon guidance. Nevertheless, disorders of axon guidance can certainly be regarded as a new category of neurodevelopmental disorders.