sternal cleft
Findings
No curated finding names sternal cleft yet. Everything below is reference data from Mondo, HPO and GenCC, not evidence about what affects it.
Definition
Sternal cleft (SC) is a rare idiopathic congenital thoracic malformation characterized by a sternal fusion defect, that can be complete or partial (either superior or inferior), that is usually asymptomatic in the neonatal period (apart from a paradoxical midline thoracic bulging) but that can lead to dyspnea, cough, frequent respiratory infections and increased risk of trauma-related injury to the heart, lungs and major vessels if left untreated.
Definition from the Mondo Disease Ontology (MONDO:0016066), read 2026-09-29. CC BY 4.0.
Features
6 features
What the disease is reported to present with, and how often among people who have it — never how often a feature means the disease. HPO, annotations 2026-09-02.
- Abnormal sternum morphologyHPOHP:0000766
- Very frequent (80% to 99% of cases)
- Abnormal thorax morphologyHPOHP:0000765
- Very frequent (80% to 99% of cases)
- Bifid sternumHPOHP:0010309
- Very frequent (80% to 99% of cases)
- CoughHPOHP:0012735
- Frequent (30% to 79% of cases)
- DyspneaHPOHP:0002094
- Frequent (30% to 79% of cases)
- Recurrent respiratory infectionsHPOHP:0002205
- Frequent (30% to 79% of cases)
Where it sits
- A kind of
Other names
2 names
Resolves to: sternal cleft
- Also called
- cleft sternumsternum bifidum