Editor—Time may be closing on use of the acronym “CATCH22” for “deletion 22q11 syndrome”,1 but it is likely to be a good while before it has finally run out. Many will prefer to retain their personal preference and “deletion 22q11 syndrome” does not easily roll off the tongue (and it really needs to be stated in full to distinguish it from the separate and emerging “deletion 22q13 syndrome”2 3). Besides this, any consensus accepted by geneticists will take time to filter through to colleagues in other disciplines who, carrying most of the clinical burden for managing the patients' medical problems, may reasonably question the value of so much discussion about a name. Before (if ever) the relatively unambiguous “deletion 22q11 syndrome” achieves universal acclaim, and/or “velocardiofacial syndrome” (VCFS), the history of medical genetics should record that a little known otolaryngologist from Prague, Dr Eva Sedláčková, almost certainly described the syndrome in 1955,4 and subsequently in 1967,5 as a result of good clinical observation on a cohort of patients with congenital shortening of the soft palate. The findings are further referred to in a paper on soft palate innervation.6 The first paper, of course, appeared some 10, …