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b 10. A 5-year-old boy is brought to the office by his mother. She is concerned
that the child may have a congenital neuropathy because she was recently
diagnosed with autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A
due to a PMP22 duplication. The child, who has no siblings, has had normal
developmental milestones, has no motor or sensory symptoms, and has a
normal neurologic examination. Which of the following is the most
appropriate approach to testing of the child?
A. chromosomal microarray testing
B. needle EMG
C. nerve conduction studies
D. no testing is appropriate
E. PMP22 gene testing
b 11. A 33-year-old man with a family history of Parkinson disease (PD) is aware
that low vitamin D has been associated with increased risk of developing
multiple sclerosis. He wonders whether he should take vitamin D to reduce
the risk of developing PD. Which of the following statements regarding the
relationship between vitamin D and PD is supported by current evidence?
A. A single nucleotide polymorphism of the vitamin D receptor that
increases risk of multiple sclerosis decreases risk for PD.
B. High vitamin D levels may lower the relative risk for PD.
C. Unlike patients with multiple sclerosis, patients with PD have higher
vitamin D levels than controls.
D. Vitamin D is unlikely to be protective, as its plasma levels increase with age.
E. Vitamin D has not yet been shown to be neuroprotective in
experimental models of PD.
b 14. A 28-year-old woman presents to the office with a 2-year history of muscle
soreness and cramps and mild weakness. She is the mother of two boys
with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Examination shows mild hip flexor
weakness. Serum creatine kinase is mildly elevated; other routine laboratory
tests, including thyroid function tests, are normal. Which of the following is
the most likely genetic explanation for her presentation?
A. autosomal dominant inheritance
B. autosomal recessive inheritance
C. mitochondrial inheritance
D. nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation
E. X-linked dominant inheritance
b 15. A 16-year-old girl is evaluated for progressive difficulty walking over the past
4 years. She first noticed that she would often trip when walking on uneven
ground. Over the past 3 months she has developed bilateral footdrop. She has
also noticed numbness in both feet. Her father, who died at age 60 of a
myocardial infarction, had a neuropathy, but she cannot provide more details.
Examination shows a steppage gait, atrophy of leg muscles, pes cavus, and
hammer toes. There is weakness and atrophy of hand muscles and severe
weakness of all muscles innervated by the tibial and peroneal nerves. Reflexes
are absent at the ankles. There is moderate sensory loss to all modalities in
the feet. EMG shows reduced compound muscle action potential amplitudes
with only mild decrease in nerve conduction velocities; there are fibrillation
potentials and large motor unit potentials in the anterior tibialis, posterior
tibialis, peroneus longus, and medial gastrocnemius muscles. Genetic testing
is most likely to reveal a mutation in which of the following genes?
A. HSPB8
B. MFN2
C. NEFL
D. PMP22
E. RAB7
b 26. The recent practice guidelines for the genetic testing and counseling
of Alzheimer disease (AD) from the American College of Medical Genetics
and the National Society of Genetic Counselors suggest that APOE testing for
AD risk in an asymptomatic individual could be appropriately considered
in which of the following situations?
A. after genetic counseling using a strict pretesting and posttesting counseling
protocol
B. in patients who have negative testing for autosomal dominant early-onset
forms of AD
C. in patients with a family history of AD applying for long-term disability insurance
D. there is no clinical situation where APOE testing is appropriate
E. upon request by any patient as part of routine susceptibility assessment
b 27. A 24-year-old man is evaluated for progressive hand and leg weakness. He
first started noticing inability to hold a pen when he was 10 years old. When
he was 15 years old he developed progressive foot weakness and eventually
bilateral footdrop requiring ankle-foot orthoses. Both his mother and maternal
grandmother had a history of mild foot weakness. Examination shows a
steppage gait; pes cavus; and severe weakness and atrophy of thenar,
hypothenar, peroneal, and tibialis muscles. Reflexes are absent throughout.
There is sensory loss in the hands and feet. Nerve conduction study shows
reduced amplitude of compound motor and sensory action potentials. Median,
ulnar, peroneal, and tibial nerve conduction velocities are in the intermediate
range (30 m/s to 35 m/s). This disorder is most likely linked to a mutation
affecting which of the following proteins?
A. connexin 32
B. dynactin 1
C. mitofusin 2
D. myelin basic protein
E. peripheral myelin protein 22
b 28. Of the following list of genes and the disease states associated with them,
which of the genes is a polymorphism rather than a mutation?
A. APOE gene and Alzheimer disease
B. GLA gene and Fabry disease
C. HTT gene and Huntington disease
D. PMP22 gene and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
E. SPAST gene and hereditary spastic paraplegia
b 33. A 72-year-old man is evaluated for mild difficulties with memory, particularly
for names, over the past 6 months. The patient’s wife has also noticed the
memory problems, but they have not interfered with his job, family, or social
activities. He has an asymptomatic 50-year-old son. Mental status examination is
consistent with mild cognitive impairment, amnestic type. Which of the following
is the most appropriate statement regarding APOE genotyping in this patient?
A. APOE testing is not useful because he only has mild cognitive impairment.
B. If he has an APOE (4/(4 genotype, his asymptomatic son should also
be tested.
C. If he lacks the APOE (4 status, he has a 3% per year risk of developing
Alzheimer disease.
D. The (2 genotype virtually excludes Alzheimer pathology as the cause of
his symptoms.
E. The (4 genotype increases the risk of progression to Alzheimer disease.
b 36. A 42-year-old man is evaluated for progressive leg weakness with bilateral
footdrop, loss of manual dexterity, and stiffness in his hands. Examination
shows male pattern baldness, ptosis, weakness of the lower face, and atrophy
of the temporalis and masseter muscles. Percussion myotonia is elicited in
the thenar muscles. Which of the following is the primary mechanism of the
patient’s findings?
A. disruption of intracellular calcium homeostasis
B. disruption of the submembrane cytoskeleton
C. impaired function of the dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase gene, DMPK,
leading to abnormal channel phosphorylation
D. impaired maintenance of the myofibrillary apparatus
E. toxic effects of expanded messenger RNA (mRNA) leading to abnormal
mRNA splicing
b 38. A 17-year-old man is evaluated for weakness in the shoulder and arm
muscles and prominent contractures in the elbows, ankles, and neck. He toe
walked as a child and first noticed stiff elbows and ankles 6 years ago. His
brother died suddenly at age 20. Examination shows contracture in the neck
extensor muscles, elbows, and ankles, and mild symmetric weakness and
atrophy in the biceps and triceps. His creatine kinase is elevated (10 times
normal). Muscle biopsy shows increased endomysial tissue and fatty
replacement. EKG shows atrial fibrillation and a second-degree atrioventricular
block. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this disorder?
A. autosomal dominant D4Z4 repeat deletion
B. autosomal dominant mutation of the caveolin gene
C. autosomal recessive mutations of the calpain gene
D. CTG expansion of the dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase gene, DMPK
E. X-linked mutation of the emerin gene