IntroductionHereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder caused by mutations in the genes ENG, ACVRL1, and SMAD4.Yet the genetic cause remains unknown for some families even after exhaustive exome analysis. We hypothesised that non-coding regions of the known HHT genes may harbour variants that disrupt splicing in these cases.MethodsDNA from 35 individuals with clinical findings of HHT and 2 healthy controls from 13 families underwent whole genome sequencing. Additionally, 87 unrelated cases suspected to have HHT were evaluated using a custom designed next-generation sequencing panel to capture the coding and non-coding regions of ENG, ACVRL1and SMAD4. Individuals from both groups had tested negative previously for a mutation in the coding region of known HHT genes. Samples were sequenced on a HiSeq2500 instrument and data were analysed to identify novel and rare variants.ResultsEight cases had a novel non-coding ACVRL1variant that disrupted splicing. One family had an ACVRL1intron 9:chromosome 3 translocation, the first reported case of a translocation causing HHT. The other seven cases had a variant located within a ~300 bp CT-rich ‘hotspot’ region of ACVRL1intron 9 that disrupted splicing.ConclusionsDespite the difficulty of interpreting deep intronic variants, our study highlights the importance of non-coding regions in the disease mechanism of HHT, particularly the CT-rich hotspot region of ACVRL1intron 9. The addition of this region to HHT molecular diagnostic testing algorithms will improve clinical sensitivity.