Abstract

In a family with 11 children, three sibs (two boys and a girl) show progressive sensorineural deafness, first noticed at ages 4, 7 and 11, respectively. The progression of deafness was registered in each of these sibs over a period ranging from 9 to 15 years. The speech perception has simultaneously diminished, as observed also in the case of recruitment. The parents and the other sibs in this family have normal hearing. The parents were demonstrably consanguineous, and autosomal recessive transmission is therefore postulated. A syndromal diagnosis could not be established because general physical, neurological ophthalmological and haematological examination as well as urinalysis revealed no associated characteristics. A syphilitic infection was therefore also excluded as a possible cause. Pendred's syndrome was excluded by means of a potassium perchlorate test. It is believed that these three sibs are suffering from autosomal recessive non-syndromal progressive sensorineural deafness - a type of deafness hardly mentioned in the literature. Several authors differentiate this type of deafness from autosomal recessive early-onset neural deafness.