Aggressive behavior is a common problem among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and could negatively affect family functioning and school and social competence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between aggressive behavior, such as self-aggression and other-aggression, with verbal communication ability and IQ level in children with ASD. The sample examined in this study included 88 children with a diagnosis of ASD. For the purposes of our study, much attention was focused on individual items of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised that were useful to evaluate the aggressive behavior. We have not found any association between aggressive behavior (other-aggression and self-aggression) and the absence of language or low IQ in children with ASD. Thus, the degree of severity of autism is probably the most important risk factor for this behavior.

These findings show that the DLs could be considered as indicators of cognitive functioning in ASD.

Incontinentia pigmenti (IP) is an X-linked dominant genodermatosis confined to females. It is usually lethal in males. However, the survival of some males has been reported in literature. We describe a long follow-up case of a 12-year-old male with IP and a normal karyotype but a genomic deletion of the NEMO gene in the Xq28 position in the form of somatic mosaicism. The patient showed severe ophthalmic abnormalities and neurological manifestations characterised by very mild cerebellar ataxia and a history of epilepsy that was severe at the beginning with West syndrome, become moderate overtime and is now resolved. Despite these neurological manifestations, probably related to the presence of at least some mutated cells in his brain, the long-term follow-up in this patient demonstrated good neurological and cognitive outcome.