When compared with other mutations, those patients with a large deletion in MECP2 were more severely affected and were clinically characterized by being less able to walk, less likely to have learned to walk, and having a more severe form of gross motor dysfunctionPatients with large deletions also developed an earlier onset of hand stereotypies, epilepsy, and scoliosisThe authors suggested that a less functional MECP2 protein could account for the clinical severity observed in muscle and motor tone phenotypes. The gene discussed is MECP2; the disease is epilepsy.