Cryptorchidism, or failure of testicular descent, is a common human congenital abnormality with a multifactorial etiology that likely reflects the involvement of endocrine, environmental, and hereditary factors. Cryptorchidism can result in infertility and increases risk for testicular tumors. Testicular descent from abdomen to scrotum occurs in 2 distinct phases: the transabdominal phase and the inguinoscrotal phase (summary by Gorlov et al., 2002).

Excretion of non-amino organic acids in urine.

An abnormal restriction of fetal growth with fetal weight below the tenth percentile for gestational age.

A height below that which is expected according to age and gender norms. Although there is no universally accepted definition of short stature, many refer to "short stature" as height more than 2 standard deviations below the mean for age and gender (or below the 3rd percentile for age and gender dependent norms).

Reduction of total body weight.

Autism, the prototypic pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), is usually apparent by 3 years of age. It is characterized by a triad of limited or absent verbal communication, a lack of reciprocal social interaction or responsiveness, and restricted, stereotypic, and ritualized patterns of interests and behavior (Bailey et al., 1996; Risch et al., 1999). 'Autism spectrum disorder,' sometimes referred to as ASD, is a broader phenotype encompassing the less severe disorders Asperger syndrome (see ASPG1; 608638) and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). 'Broad autism phenotype' includes individuals with some symptoms of autism, but who do not meet the full criteria for autism or other disorders. Mental retardation coexists in approximately two-thirds of individuals with ASD, except for Asperger syndrome, in which mental retardation is conspicuously absent (Jones et al., 2008). Genetic studies in autism often include family members with these less stringent diagnoses (Schellenberg et al., 2006). Levy et al. (2009) provided a general review of autism and autism spectrum disorder, including epidemiology, characteristics of the disorder, diagnosis, neurobiologic hypotheses for the etiology, genetics, and treatment options. Genetic Heterogeneity of Autism Autism is considered to be a complex multifactorial disorder involving many genes. Accordingly, several loci have been identified, some or all of which may contribute to the phenotype. Included in this entry is AUTS1, which has been mapped to chromosome 7q22. Other susceptibility loci include AUTS3 (608049), which maps to chromosome 13q14; AUTS4 (608636), which maps to chromosome 15q11; AUTS6 (609378), which maps to chromosome 17q11; AUTS7 (610676), which maps to chromosome 17q21; AUTS8 (607373), which maps to chromosome 3q25-q27; AUTS9 (611015), which maps to chromosome 7q31; AUTS10 (611016), which maps to chromosome 7q36; AUTS11 (610836), which maps to chromosome 1q41; AUTS12 (610838), which maps to chromosome 21p13-q11; AUTS13 (610908), which maps to chromosome 12q14; AUTS14A (611913), which has been found in patients with a deletion of a region of 16p11.2; AUTS14B (614671), which has been found in patients with a duplication of a region of 16p11.2; AUTS15 (612100), associated with mutation in the CNTNAP2 gene (604569) on chromosome 7q35-q36; AUTS16 (613410), associated with mutation in the SLC9A9 gene (608396) on chromosome 3q24; AUTS17 (613436), associated with mutation in the SHANK2 gene (603290) on chromosome 11q13; AUTS18 (615032), associated with mutation in the CHD8 gene (610528) on chromosome 14q11; AUTS19 (615091), associated with mutation in the EIF4E gene (133440) on chromosome 4q23; and AUTS20 (618830), associated with mutation in the NLGN1 gene (600568) on chromosome 3q26. (NOTE: the symbol 'AUTS2' has been used to refer to a gene on chromosome 7q11 (KIAA0442; 607270) and therefore is not used as a part of this autism locus series.) There are several X-linked forms of autism susceptibility: AUTSX1 (300425), associated with mutations in the NLGN3 gene (300336); AUTSX2 (300495), associated with mutations in NLGN4 (300427); AUTSX3 (300496), associated with mutations in MECP2 (300005); AUTSX4 (300830), associated with variation in the region on chromosome Xp22.11 containing the PTCHD1 gene (300828); AUTSX5 (300847), associated with mutations in the RPL10 gene (312173); and AUTSX6 (300872), associated with mutation in the TMLHE gene (300777). A locus on chromosome 2q (606053) associated with a phenotype including intellectual disability and speech deficits was formerly designated AUTS5. Folstein and Rosen-Sheidley (2001) reviewed the genetics of autism.

Cerebellar ataxia refers to ataxia due to dysfunction of the cerebellum. This causes a variety of elementary neurological deficits including asynergy (lack of coordination between muscles, limbs and joints), dysmetria (lack of ability to judge distances that can lead to under- or overshoot in grasping movements), and dysdiadochokinesia (inability to perform rapid movements requiring antagonizing muscle groups to be switched on and off repeatedly).

A series of rhythmic and involuntary muscle contractions (at a frequency of about 5 to 7 Hz) that occur in response to an abruptly applied and sustained stretch.

Frequently experiencing feelings of being down, miserable, and/or hopeless; struggling to recover from these moods; having a pessimistic outlook on the future; feeling a pervasive sense of shame; having a low self-worth; experiencing thoughts of suicide and engaging in suicidal behavior.

Dysarthric speech is a general description referring to a neurological speech disorder characterized by poor articulation. Depending on the involved neurological structures, dysarthria may be further classified as spastic, flaccid, ataxic, hyperkinetic and hypokinetic, or mixed.

Language impairment is a deficit in comprehension or production of language that includes reduced vocabulary, limited sentence structure, or impairments in written or spoken communication. Language abilities are substantially and quantifiably below age expectations.

An abnormality of movement with a neurological basis characterized by changes in coordination and speed of voluntary movements.

Very brief, involuntary random muscular contractions occurring at rest, in response to sensory stimuli, or accompanying voluntary movements.

Upturning of the big toe (and sometimes fanning of the other toes) in response to stimulation of the sole of the foot. If the Babinski sign is present it can indicate damage to the corticospinal tract.

Schizophrenia is highly heritable, as shown by family, twin, and adoption studies. For example, for identical twins, if one twin develops schizophrenia, the other twin has about a 50% chance of also developing the disease. The risk of the general population developing the schizophrenia is about 0.3-0.7% worldwide. The search for “schizophrenia genes” has been elusive. Initial linkage studies looked at parts of the genome associated with schizophrenia, and many candidate genes were identified, including APOE, COMT, DAO, DRD1, DRD2, DRD4, DTNBP1, GABRB2, GRIN2B, HP, IL1B, MTHFR, PLXNA2, SLC6A4, TP53, and TPH1. However, some of these have later been questioned. Microdeletions and microduplications have been found to be three times more common in individuals with schizophrenia, compared to controls. Because these deletions and duplications are in genes that are overexpressed in pathways related to brain development, it is possible that the inheritance of multiple rare variants may contribute to the development of schizophrenia. Several genetic disorders feature schizophrenia as a clinical feature. The 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome comprises many different syndromes, of which one of the most serious is DiGeorge syndrome. Children born with DiGeorge syndrome typically have heart defects, cleft palate, learning difficulties, and immune deficiency. Schizophrenia is a late manifestation, affecting around 30% of individuals. Microdeletions and duplications in chromosome 1, 2, 3, 7, 15 and 16 have also been associated with schizophrenia. In 2014, a genome-wide association study looked at the genomes of over 35,000 patients and 110,00 controls. The study identified 108 SNPs that were associated with schizophrenia, 83 of which had not been previously reported. As expected, many of these loci occurred in genes that are expressed in the brain. For example, the SNPs included a gene that encodes the dopamine D2 receptor, DRD2 (the target of antipsychotic drugs), and many genes involved in glutamine neurotransmitter pathways and synaptic plasticity (e.g., GRM3, GRIN2A, SRR, GRIA1). More surprisingly, however, associations were also enriched among genes expressed in tissues with important immune functions. In 2016, a study based on nearly 65,000 people investigated the association between schizophrenia and variation in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) locus—a region on chromosome 6 that is important for immune function. The study focused on the C4 gene (complement component 4) that exists as two distinct genes: C4A and C4B, which encode particularly structurally diverse alleles. The study found that the alleles which promoted greater expression of C4A in the brain were associated with a greater risk of schizophrenia. By using mice models, the study showed that C4 is involved in the elimination of synapses during brain maturation. In humans, “synaptic pruning” is most active during late adolescence, which coincides with the typical onset of symptoms of schizophrenia. It is therefore possible that the inheritance of specific C4A alleles could lead to “run away” synaptic pruning, increasing the risk of schizophrenia. Further research may even determine C4 as a potential therapeutic target.

A seizure is an intermittent abnormality of nervous system physiology characterized by a transient occurrence of signs and/or symptoms due to abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain.

Hyperreflexia is the presence of hyperactive stretch reflexes of the muscles.

A type of ataxia characterized by the inability to carry out movements with the correct range and motion across the plane of more than one joint related to incorrect estimation of the distances required for targeted movements.

A type of ataxia characterized by the impairment of the ability to perform rapidly alternating movements, such as pronating and supinating his or her hand on the dorsum of the other hand as rapidly as possible.

The patient stands with the feet placed together and balance and is asked to close his or her eyes. A loss of balance upon eye closure is a positive Romberg sign and is interpreted as indicating a deficit in proprioception.

Cerebellar hypoplasia is a descriptive term implying a cerebellum with a reduced volume, but a normal shape and is stable over time.

Abnormal cognition is characterized by deficits in thinking, reasoning, or remembering.

A loss of global cognitive ability of sufficient amount to interfere with normal social or occupational function. Dementia represents a loss of previously present cognitive abilities, generally in adults, and can affect memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior.

A delay in the achievement of motor or mental milestones in the domains of development of a child, including motor skills, speech and language, cognitive skills, and social and emotional skills. This term should only be used to describe children younger than five years of age.

The term gait disturbance can refer to any disruption of the ability to walk. In general, this can refer to neurological diseases but also fractures or other sources of pain that is triggered upon walking. However, in the current context gait disturbance refers to difficulty walking on the basis of a neurological or muscular disease.

Cerebellar atrophy is defined as a cerebellum with initially normal structures, in a posterior fossa with normal size, which displays enlarged fissures (interfolial spaces) in comparison to the foliae secondary to loss of tissue. Cerebellar atrophy implies irreversible loss of tissue and result from an ongoing progressive disease until a final stage is reached or a single injury, e.g. an intoxication or infectious event.

A tendency to fall or the inability to keep oneself from falling; imbalance. The retropulsion test is widely regarded as the gold standard to evaluate postural instability, Use of the retropulsion test includes a rapid balance perturbation in the backward direction, and the number of balance correcting steps (or total absence thereof) is used to rate the degree of postural instability. Healthy subjects correct such perturbations with either one or two large steps, or without taking any steps, hinging rapidly at the hips while swinging the arms forward as a counterweight. In patients with balance impairment, balance correcting steps are often too small, forcing patients to take more than two steps. Taking three or more steps is generally considered to be abnormal, and taking more than five steps is regarded as being clearly abnormal. Markedly affected patients continue to step backward without ever regaining their balance and must be caught by the examiner (this would be called true retropulsion). Even more severely affected patients fail to correct entirely, and fall backward like a pushed toy soldier, without taking any corrective steps.

An anomaly of the brainstem.

Diminution of tendon reflexes, which is an invariable sign of peripheral nerve disease.

Focal proliferation of glial cells in the basal ganglia.

A deviation from normal signal on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the basal ganglia.

Interictal refers to a period of time between epileptic seizures. Electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns are important in the differential diagnosis of epilepsy, and the EEG is almost always abnormal during a seizure. Some persons with seizures may show EEG abnormalities between seizures, while others do not. In some cases, multiple interictal EEGs must be recorded before an abnormality is observed. In most cases the electrographic pattern of seizure onset is completely different from the activity recorded during interictal discharge.

Malfunction of the abducens nerve as manifested by impairment of the ability of the affected eye to be moved outward. Patients who develop abducens nerve palsy often present with binocular horizontal diplopia, which is a double vision when looking at objects side by side. There will be a notable weakness of the ipsilateral lateral rectus muscle leading to a deficit in of eye abduction on the affected side. Some patients may present with a constant head turning movement to maintain binocular fusion and to lessen the degree of diplopia.

A type of kinetic tremor that occurs during target directed movement is called intention tremor. That is, an oscillatory cerebellar ataxia that tends to be absent when the limbs are inactive and during the first part of voluntary movement but worsening as the movement continues and greater precision is required (e.g., in touching a target such as the patient's nose or a physician's finger).

A reduction in erythrocytes volume or hemoglobin concentration.

Sideroblastic anemia results from a defect in the incorporation of iron into the heme molecule. A sideroblast is an erythroblast that has stainable deposits of iron in cytoplasm (this can be demonstrated by Prussian blue staining).

Increased count of erythroid precursor cells, that is, erythroid lineage cells in the bone marrow.

Howell-Jolly bodies are small, intra-erythrocytic remnants of erythrocyte nuclei. These inclusions are solitary in each erythrocyte and strongly basophilic. These are often confused with overlying platelets, but can be distinguished by the presence of a halo around overlying platelets.

Abnormally increased variability in the size of erythrocytes.

The presence of abnormally shaped erythrocytes.

Target cells (codocytes) have a centrally located disk of hemoglobin surrounded by an area of pallor with an outer rim of hemoglobin adjacent to the cell membrane giving the cell the appearance of a target.

A type of anemia characterized by an abnormally low concentration of hemoglobin in the erythrocytes and lower than normal size of the erythrocytes.

A type of erythrocyte inclusion characterized by basophilic stippling of erythrocytes, that is, by numerous very small coarse or fine blue granules within the cytoplasm with the additional stipulation that the stippled particles are due to iron granules (demonstrable by the Prussian blue stain).

A larger than normal amount or percentage of hematopoietic cells relative to marrow fat.

Hypotonia is an abnormally low muscle tone (the amount of tension or resistance to movement in a muscle). Even when relaxed, muscles have a continuous and passive partial contraction which provides some resistance to passive stretching. Hypotonia thus manifests as diminished resistance to passive stretching. Hypotonia is not the same as muscle weakness, although the two conditions can co-exist.

Concentration of protoporphyrins in erythrocytes above the upper limit of normal.

Difficulty in speaking due to a physical disorder of the mouth, tongue, throat, or vocal cords. Associated with a known physical or neurological cause.

Abnormally pale skin.

Rhythmic, involuntary oscillations of one or both eyes related to abnormality in fixation, conjugate gaze, or vestibular mechanisms.

Paralysis of one or more extraocular muscles that are responsible for eye movements.

A misalignment of the eyes so that the visual axes deviate from bifoveal fixation. The classification of strabismus may be based on a number of features including the relative position of the eyes, whether the deviation is latent or manifest, intermittent or constant, concomitant or otherwise and according to the age of onset and the relevance of any associated refractive error.