ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:The study was carried out to characterized the clinical and the laboratorial features of children with mitochondrial respiratoy chain disorders in Korea. METHODS:We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and the loboratorial data of 28 children with significantly low activities in respiratory chain complexes of muscle using spectrophotometry. RESULTS:The mean age was 6.67+/-4.44 years and the ratio males to female was 1.15:1. Eighteen patients (64.3%) showed defects in Complex I, 8 (28.6%) in Complex VI, 1 (3.6%) in Complex II, and 1 in Complex I and IV. Eight cases (28.6%) were diagnosed with Leigh disease, one with MELAS, Kearns-Sayre syndrome, and Alpers disease retrospectively, but the predominant clinical presentations were a nonspecific encephalopathy (17/28, 60.7%). Epilepsy was seen in 21 (75.0%) patients, while developmental delay in 27 (96.4%) patients. Fifteen out of 28 children (53.6%), clinical symptoms mostly appeared below age of 1 year. The brain MRI showed diffuse cortical atrophy in 18 (64.3%) patients and basal ganglia signal changes in 12 (42.9%) patients. CONCLUSION:The defects in mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes should be considered in any children with an unexplained neurological condition including even epilepsy.
Subject(s)
Child , Female , Humans , Male , Atrophy , Basal Ganglia , Brain , Diffuse Cerebral Sclerosis of Schilder , Electron Transport , Epilepsy , Kearns-Sayre Syndrome , Korea , Leigh Disease , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , MELAS Syndrome , Mitochondrial Diseases , Retrospective Studies , SpectrophotometryABSTRACT
A 5-year-old girl was admitted because of an acute onset of weakness in her extremities. She had experienced a similar episode before but had recovered spontaneously. She had previously been diagnosed with distal renal tubular acidosis(RTA) at the age of 2 months. During the period of acute paralysis, her serum potassium level was 1.8 mmol/L and the muscle enzymes were markedly raised suggesting massive rhabdomyolysis. Although hypokalemia is common in renal tubular acidosis, acute paralytic presentation is uncommon and is rarely described in children. We report a case of distal RTA complicated with hypokalemic paralysis with a brief review of related literatures.