Multicore disease in sibs with severe mental retardation, short stature, facial anomalies, hypoplasia of the pituitary fossa, and hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism

We describe a family in which two adult sibs presented with a history of congenital nonprogressive myopathy, severe mental retardation and evidence of mild generalized weakness, short stature, musculoskeletal deformities, facial anomalies, sexual infantilism, and radiologic evidence of pituitary hypoplasia. The parents were first cousins. An excess of other, apparently unrelated, genetic conditions were present in other family members. Results of histochemical and electron microscopy studies of muscle biopsies from both affected individuals were compatible with multicore disease. This newly described syndrome likely is an autosomal recessive trait and appears to be the first reported association of multicore disease with mental retardation.