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"Laboratory changes": massive accumulation of chylomicrons in the plasma and corresponding severe hypertriglyceridemia. Typically, the plasma in a fasting blood sample appears creamy (plasma lactescence).
"Clinical symptoms:" The disease often presents in infancy with colicky pain, failure to thrive, and other symptoms and signs of the chylomicronemia syndrome. In women the use of estrogens or first pregnancy are also well known trigger factors for initial manifestation of LPLD. At all ages, the most common clinical manifestation is recurrent abdominal pain and acute pancreatitis. The pain may be epigastric, with radiation to the back, or it may be diffuse, with the appearance of an emergent acute abdomen. Other typical symptoms are eruptive xanthomas (in about 50% of patients), lipemia retinalis and hepatosplenomegaly.
"Complications:" Patients with LPLD are at high risk of acute pancreatitis, which can be life-threatening, and can lead to chronic pancreatic insufficiency and diabetes.
Often symptoms will arise that indicate the body is not absorbing or making the lipoproteins that it needs. These symptoms usually appear "en masse", meaning that they happen all together, all the time. These symptoms come as follows:
- Failure to thrive/Failure to grow in infancy
- Steatorrhea/Fatty, pale stools
- Frothy stools
- Foul smelling stools
- Protruding abdomen
- Intellectual disability/developmental delay
- Developmental coordination disorder, evident by age ten
- Muscle weakness
- Slurred speech
- Scoliosis (curvature of the spine)
- Progressive decreased vision
- Balance and coordination problems
This defect leads to a multi-systemic disorder of the connective tissue, muscles, central nervous system (CNS), and cardiovascular system. Homocystinuria represents a group of hereditary metabolic disorders characterized by an accumulation of the amino acid homocysteine in the serum and an increased excretion of homocysteine in the urine. Infants appear to be normal and early symptoms, if any are present, are vague.
Signs and symptoms of homocystinuria that may be seen include the following:
Signs and symptoms of a biotinidase deficiency can appear several days after birth. These include seizures, hypotonia and muscle/limb weakness, ataxia, paresis, hearing loss, optic atrophy, skin rashes (including seborrheic dermatitis and psoriasis), and alopecia. If left untreated, the disorder can rapidly lead to coma and death.
Biotinidase deficiency can also appear later in life. This is referred to as "late-onset" biotinidase deficiency. The symptoms are similar, but perhaps more mild, because if an individual survives the neonatal period they likely have some residual activity of biotin-related enzymes. Studies have noted individuals who were asymptomatic until adolescence or early adulthood. One study pointed out that untreated individuals may not show symptoms until age 21. Furthermore, in rare cases, even individuals with profound deficiencies of biotinidase can be asymptomatic.
Symptom severity is predictably correlated with the severity of the enzyme defect. Profound biotinidase deficiency refers to situations where enzyme activity is 10% or less. Individuals with partial biotinidase deficiency may have enzyme activity of 10-30%.
Functionally, there is no significant difference between dietary biotin deficiency and genetic loss of biotin-related enzyme activity. In both cases, supplementation with biotin can often restore normal metabolic function and proper catabolism of leucine and isoleucine.
The symptoms of biotinidase deficiency (and dietary deficiency of biotin) can be quite severe. A 2004 case study from Metametrix detailed the effects of biotin deficiency, including aggression, cognitive delay, and reduced immune function.
Abetalipoproteinemia affects the absorption of dietary fats, cholesterol, and certain vitamins. People affected by this disorder are not able to make certain lipoproteins, which are molecules that consist of proteins combined with cholesterol and particular fats called triglycerides. This leads to a multiple vitamin deficiency, affecting the fat-soluble vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. However, many of the observed effects are due to vitamin E deficiency in particular.
The signs and symptoms of abetalipoproteinemia appear in the first few months of life (because pancreatic lipase is not active in this period). They can include failure to gain weight and grow at the expected rate (failure to thrive); diarrhea; abnormal spiny red blood cells (acanthocytosis); and fatty, foul-smelling stools (steatorrhea). The stool may contain large chunks of fat and/or blood. Other features of this disorder may develop later in childhood and often impair the function of the nervous system. They can include poor muscle coordination, difficulty with balance and movement (ataxia), and progressive degeneration of the retina (the light-sensitive layer in the posterior eye) that can progress to near-blindness (due to deficiency of vitamin A, retinol). Adults in their thirties or forties may have increasing difficulty with balance and walking. Many of the signs and symptoms of abetalipoproteinemia result from a severe vitamin deficiency, especially vitamin E deficiency, which typically results in eye problems with degeneration of the spinocerebellar and dorsal column tracts.
Biotinidase deficiency is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder in which biotin is not released from proteins in the diet during digestion or from normal protein turnover in the cell. This situation results in biotin deficiency.
Biotin, also called vitamin B, is an important water-soluble nutrient that aids in the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Biotin deficiency can result in behavioral disorders, lack of coordination, learning disabilities and seizures. Biotin supplementation can alleviate and sometimes totally stop such symptoms.
Lipoprotein lipase deficiency (also known as "familial chylomicronemia syndrome", "chylomicronemia", "chylomicronemia syndrome" and "hyperlipoproteinemia type Ia") is a rare autosomal recessive lipid disorder caused by a mutation in the gene which codes lipoprotein lipase. As a result, afflicted individuals lack the ability to produce lipoprotein lipase enzymes necessary for effective breakdown of triglycerides.
Classical homocystinuria, also known as cystathionine beta synthase deficiency or CBS deficiency, is an inherited disorder of the metabolism of the amino acid methionine, often involving cystathionine beta synthase. It is an inherited autosomal recessive trait, which means a child needs to inherit a copy of the defective gene from both parents to be affected.
Lysosomal acid lipase deficiency (or LAL deficiency or LAL-D), also known as Wolman disease, happens when the body does not produce enough active lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) enzyme. This enzyme plays an important role in breaking down fatty material (cholesteryl esters and triglycerides) in the body. Infants, children and adults that suffer from LAL Deficiency experience a range of serious health problems. The lack of the LAL enzyme can lead to a build-up of fatty material in a number of body organs including the liver, spleen, gut, in the wall of blood vessels and other important organs.
Very low levels of the LAL enzyme lead to LAL Deficiency. LAL Deficiency typically affects infants in the first year of life. The accumulation of fat in the walls of the gut in early onset disease leads to serious digestive problems including malabsorption, a condition in which the gut fails to absorb nutrients and calories from food. Because of these digestive complications, affected infants usually fail to grow and gain weight at the expected rate for their age (failure to thrive). As the disease progresses, it can cause life-threatening liver dysfunction or liver failure.
Until 2015 there was no treatment, and very few infants with LAL-D survived beyond the first year of life. In 2015 an enzyme replacement therapy, sebelipase alfa was approved in the US and EU. The therapy was additionally approved in Japan in 2016.
As with several other metabolic conditions, OTC deficiency can have variable presentations, regarding age of onset and the severity of symptoms. This compounded when considering heterozygous females and the possibility of non-random X-inactivation. In the classic and most well-known presentation, a male infant appears well initially, but by the second day of life they are irritable, lethargic and stop feeding. A metabolic encephalopathy develops, and this can progress to coma and death without treatment. Ammonia is only toxic to the brain, other tissues can handle elevated ammonia concentrations without problems.
Later onset forms of OTC deficiency can have variable presentations. Although late onset forms of the disease are often considered milder than the classic infantile presentation, any affected individual is at risk for an episode of hyperammonemia that could still be life-threatening, if presented with the appropriate stressors. These patients will often present with headaches, nausea, vomiting, delayed growth and a variety of psychiatric symptoms (confusion, delirium, aggression, or self-injury). A detailed dietary history of an affected individual with undiagnosed OTC deficiency will often reveal a history of protein avoidance.
The prognosis of a patient with severe OTC deficiency is well correlated with the length of the hyperammonemic period rather than the degree of hyperammonemia or the presence of other symptoms, such as seizures. Even for patients with late onset forms of the disease, their overall clinical picture is dependent on the extent of hyperammonemia they have experienced, even if it has remained unrecognized.
The main symptoms of ADA deficiency are pneumonia, chronic diarrhea, and widespread skin rashes. Affected children also grow much more slowly than healthy children and some have developmental delay. Most individuals with ADA deficiency are diagnosed with SCID in the first 6 months of life.
Hyperglycerolemia, also known as Glycerol kinase deficiency (GKD), is a genetic disorder where the enzyme glycerol kinase is deficient resulting in a build-up of glycerol in the body. Glycerol kinase is responsible for synthesizing triglycerides and glycerophospholipids in the body. Excess amounts of glycerol can be found in the blood and/ or urine. Hyperglycerolmia occurs more frequently in males. Hyperglycerolemia is listed as a “rare disease” by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which means it affects less than 200,000 people in the US population (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), or less than about 1 in 1500 people.
Glycerol and glycerol kinase activity analyses are usually not offered by routine general medical laboratories. To diagnose hyperglycerolemia, blood and urine can be tested for the amounts of glycerol present.
There are three clinical forms of GKD: infantile, juvenile, and adult. The infantile form is associated with severe developmental delay and results in a syndrome with Xp21 gene deletion with congenital adrenal hypoplasia and/or Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The infantile diagnosis is made by measuring plasma glycerol and is characterized by glycerol levels between 1.8 and 8.0 mmol/L and glyceroluria more than 360 mmol/24h. To confirm the diagnosis, genetic testing of the Xp21 gene is definitive. Children with GKD have severe hypoglycemic episodes and profound metabolic acidosis, or are completely symptom free. Individuals who are unable to form glucose from the glycerol released during triglyceride catabolism also the hypoglycemic episodes often disappear during adolescence. Patients with the juvenile and adult forms often have no symptoms and are diagnosed fortuitously when a medical professional tests for another medical condition. The juvenile form is an uncommon form characterized by Reye syndrome-like clinical manifestations including episodic vomiting, acidemia, and disorders of consciousness.
Infants may present with feeding difficulties with frequent vomiting, diarrhea, swelling of the abdomen, and failure to gain weight or sometimes weight loss.
As the disease progresses in infants, increasing fat accumulation in the liver leads to other complications including yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), and a persistent low-grade fever. An ultrasound examination shows accumulation of chalky material (calcification) in the adrenal gland in about half of infants with LAL-D. Complications of LAL-D progress over time, eventually leading to life-threatening problems such as extremely low levels of circulating red blood cells (severe anemia), liver dysfunction or failure, and physical wasting (cachexia).
People who are older children or adults generally present with a wide range of signs and symptoms that overlap with other disorders. They may have diarrhoea, stomach pain, vomiting, or poor growth, a sign of malabsorption. They may have signs of bile duct problems, like itchiness, jaundice, pale stool, or dark urine. Their feces may be excessively greasy. They often have an enlarged liver, liver disease, and may have yellowish deposits of fat underneath the skin, usually around their eyelids. The disease is often undiagnosed in adults.The person may have a history of premature cardiac disease or premature stroke.
Blood tests may show anaemia and their lipid profiles are generally similar to people with more common familial hypercholesterolemia, including elevated total cholesterol, elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and elevated serum transaminases.
Liver biopsy findings will generally show a bright yellow-orange color, enlarged, lipid-laden hepatocytes and Kupffer cells, microvesicular and macrovesicular steatosis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.The only definitive tests are genetic, which may be conducted in any number of ways.
People with methylmalonyl CoA mutase deficiency exhibit many symptoms similar to other diseases involving inborn errors of metabolism. Sometimes the symptoms appear shortly after birth, but other times the onset of symptoms is later.
Newborn babies experience with vomiting, acidosis, hyperammonemia, hepatomegaly (enlarged livers), hyperglycinemia (high glycine levels), and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Later, cases of thrombocytopenia and neutropenia can occur.
In some cases intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as autism, were noted with increased frequency in populations with methylmalonyl-CoA mutase deficiency.
The presentation of patient with SPCD can be incredibly varied, from asymptomatic to lethal cardiac manifestations. Early cases were reported with liver dysfunction, muscular findings (weakness and underdevelopment), hypoketotic hypoglycemia, cardiomegaly, cardiomyopathy and marked carnitine deficiency in plasma and tissues, combined with increased excretion in urine. Patients who present clinically with SPCD fall into two categories, a metabolic presentation with hypoglycemia and a cardiac presentation characterized by cardiomyopathy. Muscle weakness can be found with either presentation.
In countries with expanded newborn screening, SPCD can be identified shortly after birth. Affected infants show low levels of free carnitine and all other acylcarnitine species by tandem mass spectrometry. Not all infants with low free carnitine are affected with SPCD. Some may have carnitine deficiency secondary to another metabolic condition or due to maternal carnitine deficiency. Proper follow-up of newborn screening results for low free carnitine includes studies of the mother to determine whether her carnitine deficiency is due to SPCD or secondary to a metabolic disease or diet. Maternal cases of SPCD have been identified at a higher than expected rate, often in women who are asymptomatic. Some mothers have also been identified through newborn screening with cardiomyopathy that had not been previously diagnosed. The identification and treatment of these asymptomatic individuals is still developing, as it is not clear whether they require the same levels of intervention as patients identified with SPCD early in life based on clinical presentation.
Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency also known as OTC deficiency is the most common urea cycle disorder in humans. Ornithine transcarbamylase, the defective enzyme in this disorder is the final enzyme in the proximal portion of the urea cycle, responsible for converting carbamoyl phosphate and ornithine into citrulline. OTC deficiency is inherited in an X-linked recessive manner, meaning males are more commonly affected than females.
In severely affected individuals, ammonia concentrations increase rapidly causing ataxia, lethargy and death without rapid intervention. OTC deficiency is diagnosed using a combination of clinical findings and biochemical testing, while confirmation is often done using molecular genetics techniques.
Once an individual has been diagnosed, the treatment goal is to avoid precipitating episodes that can cause an increased ammonia concentration. The most common treatment combines a low protein diet with nitrogen scavenging agents. Liver transplant is considered curative for this disease. Experimental trials of gene therapy using adenoviral vectors resulted in the death of one participant, Jesse Gelsinger, and have been discontinued.
Adenosine deaminase deficiency (also called ADA deficiency or ADA-SCID) is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder that causes immunodeficiency. It occurs in fewer than one in 100,000 live births worldwide.
It accounts for about 15% of all cases of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).
ADA deficiency may be present in infancy, childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. Age of onset and severity is related to some 29 known genotypes associated with the disorder.
Systemic primary carnitine deficiency (SPCD), also known as carnitine uptake defect, carnitine transporter deficiency (CTD) or systemic carnitine deficiency is an inborn error of fatty acid transport caused by a defect in the transporter responsible for moving carnitine across the plasma membrane. Carnitine is an important amino acid for fatty acid metabolism. When carnitine cannot be transported into tissues, fatty acid oxidation is impaired, leading to a variety of symptoms such as chronic muscle weakness, cardiomyopathy, hypoglycemia and liver dysfunction. The specific transporter involved with SPCD is OCTN2, coded for by the "SLC22A5" gene located on chromosome 5. SPCD is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, with mutated alleles coming from both parents.
Acute episodes due to SPCD are often preceded by metabolic stress such as extended fasting, infections or vomiting. Cardiomyopathy can develop in the absence of an acute episode, and can result in death. SPCD leads to increased carnitine excretion in the urine and low levels in plasma. In most locations with expanded newborn screening, SPCD can be identified and treated shortly after birth. Treatment with high doses of carnitine supplementation is effective, but needs to be rigorously maintained for life.
SPCD is more common in the Faroe Islands than in other countries, at least one out of every 1000 inhabitants of the Faroes has the illness, while the numbers for other countries are one in every 100,000. Around 100 persons in the islands have been diagnosed, around one third of the whole population of 48,000 people have been screened for SPCD. Several young Faroese people and children have died a sudden death with cardiac arrest because of SPCD. Scientists believe that around 10% of the Faroese population are carriers of the gene for SPCD. These people are not ill, but may have a lower amount of carnitine in their blood than non-carriers.
Another common symptom of copper deficiency is peripheral neuropathy, which is numbness or tingling that can start in the extremities and can sometimes progress radially inward towards the torso. In an Advances in Clinical Neuroscience & Rehabilitation (ACNR) published case report, a 69-year-old patient had progressively worsened neurological symptoms. These symptoms included diminished upper limb reflexes with abnormal lower limb reflexes, sensation to light touch and pin prick was diminished above the waist, vibration sensation was lost in the sternum, and markedly reduced proprioception or sensation about the self’s orientation. Many people suffering from the neurological effects of copper deficiency complain about very similar or identical symptoms as the patient. This numbness and tingling poses danger for the elderly because it increases their risk of falling and injuring themselves. Peripheral neuropathy can become very disabling leaving some patients dependent on wheel chairs or walking canes for mobility if there is lack of correct diagnosis. Rarely can copper deficiency cause major disabling symptoms. The deficiency will have to be present for an extensive amount of time until such disabling conditions manifest.
Copper deficiency can cause a wide variety of neurological problems including, myelopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and optic neuropathy.
Hypolipoproteinemia, hypolipidemia, or hypolipidaemia (British English) is a form of dyslipidemia that is defined by abnormally lowered levels of any or all lipids and/or lipoproteins in the blood. It occurs through genetic disease (namely, Hypoalphalipoproteinemia and Hypobetalipoproteinemia), malnutrition, malabsorption, wasting disease, cancer, hyperthyroidism, and liver disease.
Methylmalonyl-CoA mutase is a mitochondrial homodimer apoenzyme (EC. 5. 4.99.2) that focuses on the catalysis of methylmalonyl CoA to succinyl CoA. The enzyme is bound to adenosylcobalamin, a hormonal derivative of vitamin B12 in order to function. Methylmalonyl-CoA mutase deficiency is caused by genetic defect in the MUT gene responsible for encoding the enzyme. Deficiency in this enzyme accounts for 60% of the cases of methylmalonic acidemia.
This condition causes severe infections. it is characterized by elevated immunoglobulins that function poorly.
Other symptoms are:
- Bronchiectasis
- Hepatosplenomegaly
- Pyoderma
- Emphysema
- Diarrhea
It can be diagnosed via blood study that identifies fat particles. The patient must fast overnight to prevent interference from fat in the blood due to food intake. The criteria for this (without the involvement of cholesterol-lowering drugs) are total cholesterol levels below 120 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol levels under 50 mg/dL.