Achondroplasia is the most common cause of disproportionate short stature. Affected individuals have rhizomelic shortening of the limbs, macrocephaly, and characteristic facial features with frontal bossing and midface retrusion. In infancy, hypotonia is typical, and acquisition of developmental motor milestones is often both aberrant in pattern and delayed. Intelligence and life span are usually near normal, although craniocervical junction compression increases the risk of death in infancy. Additional complications include obstructive sleep apnea, middle ear dysfunction, kyphosis, and spinal stenosis.

Pseudoachondroplasia is characterized by normal length at birth and normal facies. Often the presenting feature is a waddling gait, recognized at the onset of walking. Typically, the growth rate falls below the standard growth curve by approximately age two years, leading to a moderately severe form of disproportionate short-limb short stature. Joint pain during childhood, particularly in the large joints of the lower extremities, is common. Degenerative joint disease is progressive; approximately 50% of individuals with pseudoachondroplasia eventually require hip replacement surgery.

CHST3-related skeletal dysplasia is characterized by short stature of prenatal onset, joint dislocations (knees, hips, radial heads), clubfeet, and limitation of range of motion that can involve all large joints. Kyphosis and occasionally scoliosis with slight shortening of the trunk develop in childhood. Minor heart valve dysplasia has been described in several persons. Intellect and vision are normal.

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type VI (HSAN6) is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by neonatal hypotonia, respiratory and feeding difficulties, lack of psychomotor development, and autonomic abnormalities including labile cardiovascular function, lack of corneal reflexes leading to corneal scarring, areflexia, and absent axonal flare response after intradermal histamine injection (summary by Edvardson et al., 2012). For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, see HSAN1 (162400).

Autosomal dominant Robinow syndrome (ADRS) is characterized by skeletal findings (short stature, mesomelic limb shortening predominantly of the upper limbs, and brachydactyly), genital abnormalities (in males: micropenis / webbed penis, hypoplastic scrotum, cryptorchidism; in females: hypoplastic clitoris and labia majora), dysmorphic facial features (widely spaced and prominent eyes, frontal bossing, anteverted nares, midface retrusion), dental abnormalities (including malocclusion, crowding, hypodontia, late eruption of permanent teeth), bilobed tongue, and occasional prenatal macrocephaly that persists postnatally. Less common findings include renal anomalies, radial head dislocation, vertebral abnormalities such as hemivertebrae and scoliosis, nail dysplasia, cardiac defects, cleft lip/palate, and (rarely) cognitive delay. When present, cardiac defects are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. A variant of Robinow syndrome, associated with osteosclerosis and caused by a heterozygous pathogenic variant in DVL1, is characterized by normal stature, persistent macrocephaly, increased bone mineral density with skull osteosclerosis, and hearing loss, in addition to the typical features described above.

Myofibrillar myopathy-7 (MFM7) is an autosomal recessive muscle disorder characterized by early childhood onset of slowly progressive muscle weakness that primarily affects the lower limbs and is associated with joint contractures (summary by Straussberg et al., 2016). For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of myofibrillar myopathy, see MFM1 (601419).