Background: LEOPARD syndrome is a complex dysmorphogenetic disorder of inconstant penetrance and various morphologic expressions. The syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease that features multiple lentigines, electrocardiographic changes, eye hypertelorism, pulmonary valve stenosis or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, genital malformations, and a delayed constitutional growth hearing loss, which can be associated with rapidly progressive severe biventricular obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. No epidemiologic data are available on the real incidence of LEOPARD syndrome; however, this seems to be a rare disease, being often underdiagnosed, as many of its features are mild.
Case presentation: We report the case of a 10-year-old female pediatric patient, diagnosed with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the age of 3 months, and recently diagnosed with LEOPARD syndrome. The patient first presented for a cardiologic examination at the age of 3 months, due to a murmur. She presented failure to thrive and psychomotor retardation, and was diagnosed with biventricular obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for which she had received high-dose beta-blocker therapy. At the age of 7 years she underwent a biventricular myectomy for relief of outflow tract obstruction, completed with another myectomy after 2 years due to progressive increase of pressure gradient in the left ventricular outflow tract. Prior to the second surgical intervention, multiple lentigines appeared on her skin, and genetic testing revealed the presence of LEOPARD syndrome.
Conclusion: LEOPARD syndrome is a rare disease, which can be very difficult to diagnose, especially based on features other than lentigines. Cardiac involvement in LEOPARD syndrome can be progressive and requires multiple medical and surgical interventions.
