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Biotinidase deficiency can be found by genetic testing. This is often done at birth as part of newborn screening in several states throughout the United States. Results are found through testing a small amount of blood gathered through a heel prick of the infant. As not all states require that this test be done, it is often skipped in those where such testing is not required. Biotinidase deficiency can also be found by sequencing the "BTD" gene, particularly in those with a family history or known familial gene mutation.
In the United States, biotin supplements are readily available without a prescription in amounts ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 micrograms (30 micrograms is identified as Adequate Intake).
Raw eggs should be avoided in those with biotin deficiency, because egg whites contain high levels of the anti-nutrient avidin. The name avidin literally means that this protein has an "avidity" (Latin: "to eagerly long for") for biotin. Avidin binds irreversibly to biotin and this compound is then excreted in the urine.
Since biotin is in many foods at low concentrations, deficiency is rare except in locations where malnourishment is very common. Pregnancy, however, alters biotin catabolism and despite a regular biotin intake, half of the pregnant women in the U.S. are marginally biotin deficient.
Diagnosis of mitochondrial trifunctional protein deficiency is often confirmed using tandem mass spectrometry. It should be noted that genetic counseling is available for this condition. Additionally the following exams are available:
- CBC
- Urine test
It is one of the 29 conditions currently recommended for newborn screening by the American College of Medical Genetics.
Direct sequence analysis of genomic DNA from blood can be used to perform a mutation analysis for the TALDO1 gene responsible for the Transaldolase enzyme.
Autozygome analysis and biochemical evaluations of urinary sugars and polyols can be used to diagnose Transaldolase Deficiency. Two specific methods for measuring the urinary sugars and polyols are liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography with flame ionization detection.
The initial workup of abetalipoproteinemia typically consists of stool sampling, a blood smear, and a fasting lipid panel though these tests are not confirmatory. As the disease is rare, though a genetics test is necessary for diagnosis, it is generally not done initially.
Acanthocytes are seen on blood smear. Since there is no or little assimilation of chylomicrons, their levels in plasma remains low.
The inability to absorb fat in the ileum will result in steatorrhea, or fat in the stool. As a result, this can be clinically diagnosed when foul-smelling stool is encountered. Low levels of plasma chylomicron are also characteristic.
There is an absence of apolipoprotein B. On intestinal biopsy, vacuoles containing lipids are seen in enterocytes. This disorder may also result in fat accumulation in the liver (hepatic steatosis). Because the epithelial cells of the bowel lack the ability to place fats into chylomicrons, lipids accumulate at the surface of the cell, crowding the functions that are necessary for proper absorption.
Diagnosis of Fatty-acid metabolism disorder requires extensive lab testing.
Normally, in cases of hypoglycaemia, triglycerides and fatty acids are metabolised to provide glucose/energy. However, in this process, ketones are also produced and ketotic hypoglycaemia is expected. However, in cases where fatty acid metabolism is impaired, a non-ketotic hypoglycaemia may be the result, due to a break in the metabolic pathways for fatty-acid metabolism.
The term homocystinuria describes an increased excretion of the thiol amino acid homocysteine in urine (and incidentally, also an increased concentration in plasma). The source of this increase may be one of many metabolic factors, only one of which is CBS deficiency. Others include the re-methylation defects (cobalamin defects, methionine sythase deficiency, MTHFR) and vitamin deficiencies (cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency, folate (vitamin B9) deficiency, riboflavin deficiency (vitamin B2), pyridoxal phosphate deficiency (vitamin B6)). In light of this information, a combined approach to laboratory diagnosis is required to reach a differential diagnosis.
CBS deficiency may be diagnosed by routine metabolic biochemistry. In the first instance, plasma or urine amino acid analysis will frequently show an elevation of methionine and the presence of homocysteine. Many neonatal screening programs include methionine as a metabolite. The disorder may be distinguished from the re-methylation defects (e.g., MTHFR, methionine synthase deficiency and the cobalamin defects) in lieu of the elevated methionine concentration. Additionally, organic acid analysis or quantitative determination of methylmalonic acid should help to exclude cobalamin (vitamin B12) defects and vitamin B12 deficiency giving a differential diagnosis.
The laboratory analysis of homocysteine itself is complicated because most homocysteine (possibly above 85%) is bound to other thiol amino acids and proteins in the form of disulphides (e.g., cysteine in cystine-homocysteine, homocysteine in homocysteine-homocysteine) via disulfide bonds. Since as an equilibrium process the proportion of free homocystene is variable a true value of total homocysteine (free + bound) is useful for confirming diagnosis and particularly for monitoring of treatment efficacy. To this end it is prudent to perform total homocyst(e)ine analysis in which all disulphide bonds are subject to reduction prior to analysis, traditionally by HPLC after derivatisation with a fluorescent agent, thus giving a true reflection of the quantity of homocysteine in a plasma sample.
Management for mitochondrial trifunctional protein deficiency entails the following:
- Avoiding factors that might precipitate condition
- Glucose
- Low fat/high carbohydrate nutrition
In individuals with marked hyperammonemia, a urea cycle disorder is usually high on the list of possible causes. While the immediate focus is lowering the patient's ammonia concentrations, identifying the specific cause of increased ammonia levels is key as well.
Diagnostic testing for OTC deficiency, or any individual with hyperammonemia involves plasma and urine amino acid analysis, urine organic acid analysis (to identify the presence or absence of orotic acid, as well as rule out an organic acidemia) and plasma acylcarnitines (will be normal in OTC deficiency, but can identify some other causes of hyperammonemia). An individual with untreated OTC deficiency will show decreased citrulline and arginine concentrations (because the enzyme block is proximal to these intermediates) and increased orotic acid. The increased orotic acid concentrations result from the buildup of carbamoyl phosphate. This biochemical phenotype (increased ammonia, low citrulline and increased orotic acid) is classic for OTC deficiency, but can also be seen in neonatal presentations of ornithine aminotransferase deficiency. Only severely affected males consistently demonstrate this classic biochemical phenotype.
Heterozygous females can be difficult to diagnose. With the rise of sequencing techniques, molecular testing has become preferred, particularly when the disease causing mutations in the family are known. Historically, heterozygous females were often diagnosed using an allopurinol challenge. In a female with reduced enzyme activity, an oral dose of allopurinol would be metabolized to oxypurinol ribonucleotide, which blocks the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway. When this induced enzymatic block is combined with reduced physiologic enzyme activity as seen in heterozygotes, the elevation of orotic acid could be used to differentiate heterozygotes from unaffected individuals. This test was not universally effective, as it had both false negative and false positive results.
Ornithine transcarbamylase is only expressed in the liver, thus performing an enzyme assay to confirm the diagnosis requires a liver biopsy. Before molecular genetic testing was commonly available, this was one of the only methods for confirmation of a suspected diagnosis. In cases where prenatal diagnosis was requested, a fetal liver biopsy used to be required to confirm if a fetus was affected. Modern molecular techniques have eliminated this need, and gene sequencing is now the preferred method of diagnosis in asymptomatic family members after the diagnosis has been confirmed in a proband.
The diagnosis for argininemia can usually be done using fetal blood sample. One can look for the following indicators as to the presence of the condition:
- Plasma ammonia concentration.
- Urinary orotic acid concentration
- Red blood cell arginase enzyme activity(measurement)
Symptoms can be reduced through avoidance of leucine, an amino acid. Leucine is a component of most protein-rich foods; therefore, a low-protein diet is recommended. Some isolated cases of this disorder have responded to supplemental biotin; this is not altogether surprising, consider that other biotin-related genetic disorders (such as biotinidase deficiency and holocarboxylase synthetase deficiency) can be treated solely with biotin. Individuals with these multiple carboxylase disorders have the same problem with leucine catabolism as those with 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency.
As one of the urea cycle disorders, citrullinemia type I needs to be distinguished from the others: carbamyl phosphate synthetase deficiency, argininosuccinic acid lyase deficiency, ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, arginase deficiency, and N-Acetylglutamate synthase deficiency. Other diseases that may appear similar to CTLN1 include the organic acidemias and citrullinemia type II. To diagnose CTLN1, a blood test for citrulline and ammonia levels can indicate the correct diagnosis; high levels of both are indicative of this disorder. Newborns are routinely screened for CTLN1 at birth. A genetic test is the only definitive way to diagnose it.
Standard of care for treatment of CPT II deficiency commonly involves limitations on prolonged strenuous activity and the following dietary stipulations:
- The medium-chain fatty acid triheptanoin appears to be an effective therapy for adult-onset CPT II deficiency.
- Restriction of lipid intake
- Avoidance of fasting situations
- Dietary modifications including replacement of long-chain with medium-chain triglycerides supplemented with L-carnitine
The treatment is some form of Vitamin E supplementation.
Aggressive vitamin E replacement therapy has been shown to either prevent, halt or improve visual abnormalities.
No specific cure has been discovered for homocystinuria; however, many people are treated using high doses of vitamin B (also known as pyridoxine). Slightly less than 50% respond to this treatment and need to take supplemental vitamin B for the rest of their lives. Those who do not respond require a Low-sulfur diet (especially monitoring methionine), and most will need treatment with trimethylglycine. A normal dose of folic acid supplement and occasionally adding cysteine to the diet can be helpful, as glutathione is synthesized from cysteine (so adding cysteine can be important to reduce oxidative stress).
Betaine (N,N,N-trimethylglycine) is used to reduce concentrations of homocysteine by promoting the conversion of homocysteine back to methionine, i.e., increasing flux through the re-methylation pathway independent of folate derivatives (which is mainly active in the liver and in the kidneys).The re-formed methionine is then gradually removed by incorporation into body protein. The methionine that is not converted into protein is converted to S-adenosyl-methionine which goes on to form homocysteine again. Betaine is, therefore, only effective if the quantity of methionine to be removed is small. Hence treatment includes both betaine and a diet low in methionine. In classical homocystinuria (CBS, or cystathione beta synthase deficiency), the plasma methionine level usually increases above the normal range of 30 micromoles/L and the concentrations should be monitored as potentially toxic levels (more than 400 micromoles/L) may be reached.
1) Detection of orotic acid in urine
2) Deficiency of Enzymes orotate phosphoribosyl transferase and OMP decarboxylase
A 1999 retrospective study of 74 cases of neonatal onset found that 32 (43%) patients died during their first hyperammonemic episode. Of those who survived, less than 20% survived to age 14. Few of these patients received liver transplants.
Carnitor - an L-carnitine supplement that has shown to improve the body's metabolism in individuals with low L-carnitine levels. It is only useful for Specific fatty-acid metabolism disease.
There are two main types of protein C assays, activity and antigen (immunoassays). Commercially available activity assays are based on chromogenic assays that use activation by snake venom in an activating reagent, or clotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays. Repeated testing for protein C functional activity allows differentiation between transient and congenital deficiency of protein C.
Initially, a protein C activity (functional) assay can be performed, and if the result is low, a protein C antigen assay can be considered to determine the deficiency subtype (Type I or Type II). In type I deficiencies, normally functioning protein C molecules are made in reduced quantity. In type II deficiencies normal amounts of dysfunctional protein C are synthesized.
Antigen assays are immunoassays designed to measure the quantity of protein C regardless of its function. Type I deficiencies are therefore characterized by a decrease in both activity and antigen protein C assays whereas type II deficiencies exhibit normal protein C antigen levels with decreased activity levels.
The human protein C gene (PROC) comprises 9 exons, and protein C deficiency has been linked to over 160 mutations to date. Therefore, DNA testing for protein C deficiency is generally not available outside of specialized research laboratories.
Manifestation of purpura fulminans as it is usually associated with reduced protein C plasma concentrations of <5 mg IU/dL. The normal concentration of plasma protein C is 70 nM (4 µg/mL) with a half live of approximately 8 hours. Healthy term neonates, however, have lower (and more variable) physiological levels of protein C (ranging between 15-55 IU/dL) than older children or adults, and these concentrations progressively increase throughout the first 6 months of life. Protein C levels may be <10 IU/dL in preterm or twin neonates or those with respiratory distress without manifesting either purpura fulminans or disseminated intravascular coagulation.
Vitamin E deficiency is rare and is almost never caused by a poor diet. Instead, there are three specific situations when a vitamin E deficiency is likely to occur:
- Premature, very low birth weight infants - birth weights less than 1500 grams, or 3.5 pounds. A neonatologist, a pediatrician specializing in the care of newborns, typically evaluates the nutritional needs of premature infants.
- Rare disorders of fat metabolism - There is a rare genetic condition termed isolated vitamin E deficiency or 'ataxia with isolated with vitamin E deficiency', caused by mutations in the gene for the tocopherol transfer protein. These individuals have an extremely poor capacity to absorb vitamin E and develop neurological complications that are reversed by high doses of vitamin E.
- Fat malabsorption - Some dietary fat is needed for the absorption of vitamin E from the gastrointestinal tract. Anyone diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, individuals who have had part or all of their stomach removed or who have had a gastric bypass, and individuals with malabsorptive problems such as Crohn's disease, liver disease or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency may not absorb fat (people who cannot absorb fat often pass greasy stools or have chronic diarrhea and bloating). Abetalipoproteinemia is a rare inherited disorder of fat metabolism that results in poor absorption of dietary fat and vitamin E. The vitamin E deficiency associated with this disease causes problems such as poor transmission of nerve impulses, muscle weakness, and degeneration of the retina that can cause blindness.
A 2006 study of 279 patients found that of those with symptoms (185, 66%), 95% had suffered an encephalopathic crises usually with following brain damage. Of the persons in the study, 49 children died and the median age of death was 6.6 years. A Kaplan-Meier analysis of the data estimated that about 50% of symptomatic cases would die by the age of 25.