ST. LOUIS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- One in every 1,000 babies are born with clubfoot. The common deformity causes feet to turn in, sometimes making it impossible to walk. Researchers are unraveling the mystery behind the condition, and a genetic discovery is opening the door to new treatments.

Clubfoot is one of the most common birth defects. Two-year-old Mary Laws was born with it.

"I could remember seeing on the monitor when they were doing the ultrasound that she had clubfoot," Mary's father Greg Laws told Ivanhoe.

Greg was also born with clubfeet. For the first time, researchers at St. Louis Children's Hospital have pinpointed one cause of this condition.

"We're able to find a new gene that's never been implicated in human disease before," Christina Gurnett, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., told Ivanhoe. "When you make mutations of this gene, you alter the way the foot forms."

clubfootOut of 25,000 genes in the human body, the discovery of PITX1 could possibly eliminate clubfoot.

"Figuring out the cause is the first step to bettering treatment options and working on preventative strategies," Matthew Dobbs, M.D., Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at St. Louis Children's Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., told Ivanhoe.

Mary's clubfeet were corrected with casts that slowly straightened her legs.

"When we saw it at first, we were like, 'Oh my gosh!'" Mary's mother, Rita Schultz-Laws, told Ivanhoe. "The casts went from her toes all the way up to her diaper."

She now uses a new brace developed by Dr. Dobbs that allows more movement.

Now Mary is keeping her father on the go.

clubfoot"Just seeing how Mary has turned out, from seeing her feet when she was born, just so severely turned in and deformed, to where she is today -- she's running, jumping, skipping, playing," Greg said. "It's really a blessing."

Clubfoot occurs twice as often in boys and happens more often in the right foot. About half of clubfoot cases affect both feet, including bones, muscles and ligaments.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Judy Martin
Media Relations
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
(314) 286-0105