Pure Hair Nail Ectodermal Dysplasia in Two Yemeni Siblings

We report two cases of PHNED in a 15 years old Yemeni boy, and his 2 months old sister, who were born with total absence of hairs and dystrophic 20 nails. Ectodermal dysplasias (ED) are a rare group of genodermatoses affecting tissues of ectodermal origin namely: hair, nails, teeth, and sweat glands. Pure hair, nail ectodermal dysplasias (PHNED) are very rare, and involve only hair and nails, while other ectodermal structures are intact. To date only 68 (35 male, 33 female) cases have been reported in the world literature [Table 1]. A genetic analysis would be of great help to determine the causative mutation in our case, but unfortunately this sophisticated tool is not available in most of the developing countries. We hope that a genetic analysis could be available in near future in all developing countries, as this will help confirming the genetic mutation causing all cases of PHNED as well as other forms of ED.