Objective: To investigate the Notch 3 mutation spectrum in Arab patients with cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy CADASIL, which is an inherited cerebrovascular disease characterized by recurrent subcortical ischemic stroke starting in the third or fourth decade.
Methods: Complete neurological evaluation and sequencing of the Notch 3 gene were carried out at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in 2007 on 2 families from Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Sudan affected by CADASIL.
Results: The index cases had adult onset stroke, vascular dementia, behavioral and psychiatric symptoms and accelerated deaths. In both families, abnormal magnetic resonance imaging findings were detected in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. All Notch 3 exons were screened for mutations in both families and no known or novel mutation could be found; although, in one family the brain biopsy showed the typical granular osmiophilic material deposition and the vascular smooth muscle cells.
Conclusion: This is the first 2 cases of CADASIL in Arabs, which occur without an obvious Notch 3 mutation.