CDKL5 deficiency disorder: progressive brain atrophy may be part of the syndrome

The clinical phenotype of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase-Like 5 (CDKL5) deficiency disorder (CDD) has been delineated but neuroimaging features have not been systematically analyzed. We studied brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in a cohort of CDD patients and reviewed age at seizure onset, seizure semiology, head circumference. Thirty-five brain MRI from 22 unrelated patients were included. The median age at study entry was 13.4 years. In 14/22 patients (85.7%), MRI in the first year of life was unremarkable in all but two. In 11/22, we performed MRI after 24 months of age (range 2.5-23 years). In 8 out of 11 (72.7%), MRI showed supratentorial atrophy and in six cerebellar atrophy. Quantitative analysis detected volumetric reduction of the whole brain (-17.7%, P-value = 0.014), including both white matter (-25.7%, P-value = 0.005) and cortical gray matter (-9.1%, P-value = 0.098), with a reduction of surface area (-18.0%, P-value = 0.032), mainly involving the temporal regions, correlated with the head circumference (ρ = 0.79, P-value = 0.109). Both the qualitative structural assessment and the quantitative analysis detected brain volume reduction involving the gray and white matter. These neuroimaging findings may be related to either progressive changes due to CDD pathogenesis, or to the extreme severity of epilepsy, or both. Larger prospective studies are needed to clarify the bases for the structural changes we observed.