Disease-causing variants in STXBP1 are among the most common genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the phenotypic spectrum in STXBP1-related disorders is wide and clear correlations between variant type and clinical features have not been observed so far.
Here, we harmonized clinical data across 534 individuals with STXBP1-related disorders and analysed 19 973 derived phenotypic terms, including phenotypes of 253 individuals previously unreported in the scientific literature. The overall phenotypic landscape in STXBP1-related disorders is characterized by neurodevelopmental abnormalities in 95% and seizures in 89% of individuals, including focal-onset seizures as the most common seizure type (47%). More than 88% of individuals with STXBP1-related disorders have seizure onset in the first year of life, including neonatal seizure onset in 47%. Individuals with protein-truncating variants and deletions in STXBP1 (n = 261) were almost twice as likely to present with West syndrome and were more phenotypically similar than expected by chance. Five genetic hotspots with recurrent variants were identified in more than 10 individuals, including p.Arg406Cys/His (n = 40), p.Arg292Cys/His/Leu/Pro (n = 30), p.Arg551Cys/Gly/His/Leu (n = 24), p.Pro139Leu (n = 12), and p.Arg190Trp (n = 11). None of the recurrent variants were significantly associated with distinct electroclinical syndromes, single phenotypic features, or showed overall clinical similarity, indicating that the baseline variability in STXBP1-related disorders is too high for discrete phenotypic subgroups to emerge. We then reconstructed the seizure history in 62 individuals with STXBP1-related disorders in detail, retrospectively assigning seizure type and seizure frequency monthly across 4433 time intervals, and retrieved 251 anti-seizure medication prescriptions from the electronic medical records. We demonstrate a dynamic pattern of seizure control and complex interplay with response to specific medications particularly in the first year of life when seizures in STXBP1-related disorders are the most prominent. Adrenocorticotropic hormone and phenobarbital were more likely to initially reduce seizure frequency in infantile spasms and focal seizures compared to other treatment options, while the ketogenic diet was most effective in maintaining seizure freedom.
In summary, we demonstrate how the multidimensional spectrum of phenotypic features in STXBP1-related disorders can be assessed using a computational phenotype framework to facilitate the development of future precision-medicine approaches.
Development Service hosted a VA State of the Art conference (SOTA) focused on care coordination. The SOTA convened VA researchers, program directors, clinicians, and policy makers to identify knowledge gaps regarding care coordination within the VA and between VA and community systems of care. This article provides a summary and synthesis of relevant literature and provides recommendations generated from the SOTA about how to evaluate cross-system care coordination. Care coordination is typically evaluated using health outcomes including hospital readmissions and death; however, in cross-system evaluations of care coordination, measures such as access, cost, Veteran/patient and provider satisfaction (including with cross-system communication), comparable quality metrics, context (urban vs. rural), and patient complexity (medical and mental health conditions) need to be included to fully evaluate care coordination effectiveness. Future research should examine the role of multiple individuals coordinating VA and non-VA care, and how these coordinators work together to optimize coordination. KEY WORDS: Veterans; care coordination; health information interoperability; delivery of healthcare.
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