Laryngomalacia

Shulman et al. (1976) described a Mexican-American family in which 3 of 5 sibs had severe laryngomalacia requiring neonatal tracheostomy. Histologic studies of tracheal cartilage showed hypercellularity and tinctorial peculiarities of the matrix. The mother had experienced respiratory difficulties in the first year of life. Thus inheritance may be dominant. In diastrophic dwarfism (222600) tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia with respiratory distress occur. Shohat et al. (1992) described a family in which laryngomalacia evidenced by congenital stridor was present in 9 persons in 3 generations, supporting autosomal dominant inheritance. There was no instance of male-to-male transmission, however, and a mating in the second generation was consanguineous.