Prognostic DNA testing and counselling for dominant optic atrophy due to a novel OPA1 mutation.

CASE REPORT: To report the case of a 26-year-old woman with a family history of dominant optic atrophy who requested DNA testing and counselling. Ophthalmologic examination showed her affected father had bilateral temporal papillary pallor. Direct genomic sequencing of the OPA1 gene revealed a novel heterozygous nonsense mutation (Arg879stop). Because no mutation in OPA1 was detected in the daughter, we could counsel her that the possibility was very low that she was a carrier or would pass the disease-causing gene to her children.

COMMENTS: Our study provides evidence of the apparent value of molecular genetic analysis of OPA1 gene as predictive DNA testing, although the exact risk and benefit of this type of analysis awaits further study.