An Unusual Cause of Respiratory Distress in Term Neonate

Abstract

We report a female infant who was born at 41+6 weeks of gestation to a consanguineous parent, and the initial newborn examination was within normal. At 12 hours of age, she developed tachypnea; with desaturation, she had continuous thick whitish oral secretion. Admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for further management, her initial blood investigation, including blood gas and chest X-ray, was normal. Due to the persistent unexplained respiratory distress with a normal chest X-ray, we obtained a further history from parents with three siblings with respiratory symptoms but no definitive diagnosis. The genetic testing of whole-exome sequences (WES) confirmed a homozygous variant c.804_806del, p. (Lys268del) in the RSPH9 gene that causes primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). Her three siblings were tested and found to have the same genetic mutation.