Familial cardioneuromyopathy with hyaline masses and nemaline rods: a novel phenotype.

Two siblings (patients 1 and 2) had adult-onset muscle weakness that was greater distally than proximally, as well as respiratory insufficiency, cardiomyopathy, and cervical spine anomalies. Electromyography studies indicated myopathy and findings consistent with neuropathy in both. In the deltoid muscle of patient 1 and the anterior tibial muscle of patient 2, myriad type 1 fibers harbored large, irregularly polygonal, and mostly central hyaline masses, small vacuoles, and nemaline rods flanking the hyaline masses or congregated under the sarcolemma. The hyaline masses are intensely congophilic; react strongly for desmin, alphaB-crystallin, alpha1-antichymotrypsin, and ubiquitin and variably for gelsolin and dystrophin; and are devoid of alpha-actinin, nebulin, titin, and slow myosin. The presence of ubiquitin, gelsolin, and fragmented filaments, and the absence of nebulin, titin, alpha-actinin, and slow myosin in the hyaline masses, signal nonlysosomal protein degradation. Ultrastructurally, the hyaline masses are composed of intermediate-density amorphous material intermingled with fragmented filaments and irregularly branching, pleomorphic, highly electron-dense material, resembling the hyaline structures of myofibrillar myopathy. We conclude that the pathological process in this syndrome is one that induces destruction of myofibrillar components, resulting in aggregation of the degraded residues in hyaline masses, and causes replication of Z disks, resulting in formation of nemaline rods.