Two novel Italian CADASIL families from Central Italy with mutation CGC-TGC at codon 1006 in the exon 19 Notch3 gene

Here we describe clinical, neuropsychological and neuroradiological findings in 6 subjects belonging to two unrelated Italian cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) kindreds from the same geographic area who shared a common Arg1006Cys mutation. Subjects from Family A were virtually asymptomatic, and yet showed MRI pathological findings and a cluster of sub-clinical neuropsychological defects mainly centred on the visuospatial domain; patients from Family B had presented several clinically relevant episodes and showed a general cognitive impairment compatible with the clinical picture of vascular dementia. The present clinical observations are consistent with the hypothesis of a geographical clustering for CADASIL, and highlight that sub-clinical cognitive impairment may help to identify this syndrome in families presenting with only migraine.