The utility of whole exome sequencing in diagnosing pediatric neurological disorders

Pediatric neurological disorders have a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and can be challenging to diagnose. Whole exome sequencing (WES) is increasingly becoming an integral diagnostic tool in medicine. It is cost-effective and has high diagnostic yield, especially in consanguineous populations. This study aims to review WES results and its value in diagnosing neurological disorders. A retrospective chart review was performed for WES results between the period of January 2018 to November 2019. Whole exome sequencing was requested for children with unexplained neurological signs and symptoms such as epilepsy, developmental delay, visual impairment, spasticity, hypotonia and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain changes. It was conducted for children in a pediatric neurology clinic of a tertiary center at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Twenty-six children with undiagnosed neurological conditions were identified and underwent WES diagnosis. Nineteen patients (73.0%) of the cohort were diagnosed with pathogenic variants, likely pathogenic variants or variants of unknown significance (VUS). Consanguinity was positive in 18 families of the cohort (69.0%). Seven patients showed homozygous mutations. Five patients had heterozygous mutations. There were six patients with VUS and six patients had negative WES results. Whole exome sequencing showed a high diagnostic rate in this group of children with variable neurological disorders.