Screening, diagnosis and treatment of propionic academia / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Propionic acidemia or propionic aciduria, is a rare autosomal recessive inherited metabolic disease.It is a metabolic disorder of branched amino acids and odd-chain fatty acids caused by propionyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency, resulting in brain, heart, liver, bone marrow or multi-organ damages leading to disabilities even death.Patients with propionic acidemia have various clinical manifestations.Most patients presented in the neonatal period or early infancy.Nonspecific clinical presentations of the patients make the clinical diagnosis difficult, a definite diagnosis relies on the blood amino acids and acylcarnitines determination, urine organic acids analysis, and gene testing.The treatment for the patients in acute and stable phase should be individualized, including L-carnitine, dietary management, symptomatic intervention and liver transplantation.If not treated timely, patients have a high risk of death and disability.Early screening, diagnosis and treatment can greatly improve the patients′ clinical outcomes.