Summary
Classical homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency is one of the
disorders revealing a high risk of thromboembolic events and vascular disease. This
autosomal-recessively inherited metabolic disorder is considered to be rare with an
estimated prevalence of 1:130,000 in the German population. In this study, we developed
a novel multiplex PCR generating allele specific fragment lengths to analyse individual
genotypes of the two most frequent cystathionine beta-synthase alterations, the I278T
mutation, which is worldwide found on up to the half of homocystinuric alleles, and
the adjacent polymorphism 844ins68. Screening of 200 unrelated German control subjects
revealed a frequency of heterozygosity of 1.5% for I278T corresponding to a calculated
frequency of homozygosity of 1:17.800. Our data indicate that homocystinuria due to
cystathionine β-synthase deficiency is a frequently unrecognized disorder resulting
in a high risk of thromboembolic events.
Key words
Homocystinuria - homocysteine - cystathionine β-synthase - mutation screening