Biology

Shea Huber

22 May, 19:39

Giulia McGettigan was born full term with a malformed jaw, cleft palate, a ventricular septal defect, and hypocalcemia. Within 48 hours of birth she developed muscle tetany, convulsions, tachypnea, and a systolic murmur. A chest X-ray showed an enlarged heart and the absence of a thymic shadow. Blood tests showed severely depleted levels of CD4 and CD8 T cells; B-cell numbers were low but within normal range. Parathyroid hormone was undetectable. Fluorescence in situhybridization of the buccal mucosa revealed a small deletion in the long armof chromosome 22. Giulia failed to thrive and battled chronic diarrhea and opportunistic infections, including oral candidiasis and Pneumocystis jirovecii, the latter infection causing her death. Giulia most probably had which of the following immunodeficiency diseases?

a. AIDS

b. DiGeorge syndrome

c. bare lymphocyte syndrome

d. chronic granulomatous disease

e. hyper IgM syndrome.