ABSTRACT
Three elderly patients with, respectively: mild cognitive impairment, severe and progressive neurologic involvement, and focal neurologic deficit, were observed. MRI showed multiple areas of white matter edema, at times partially involving the cortex, in the first two patients, and a single area in the third. Treatment with steroids determined the disappearance of the lesions and clinical amelioration. The key to the diagnosis of cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation (CAA-ri) was the demonstration, with appropriate MRI sequences, of microbleeds consistent with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). This diagnosis was supported by genetic analysis of APOE with demonstration of ε4/ε4 genotype, found in about 80% of CAA patients who develop inflammatory changes. In the appropriate clinical setting, MRI demonstration of microbleeds supported by results of genetic analysis of APOE may strongly support the diagnosis of CAA-ri thus avoiding cerebral biopsy.
ABSTRACT
The levels of plasma free carnitine and ketone bodies have been found to fluctuate inversely in fasting individuals without muscle disease. Circulating short-chain acyl-carnitines paralleled beta-hydroxybutyrate levels. A patient with lipid storage myopathy and muscle carnitine deficiency, and his two daughters, developed exaggerated ketogenesis on fasting. The content of total carnitines in the patient's liver was normal, but free carnitine was reduced to 50 percent, and total esterified carnitines were four times greater than the mean value for the controls. The decreased muscle carnitine content in this case may have resulted from chronic hepatic ketogenesis, draining muscle carnitine. Alternatively, decreased muscle carnitine content may have initiated hepatic ketogenesis.
Subject(s)
Carnitine/deficiency , Ketone Bodies/blood , Liver/enzymology , Muscles/enzymology , Acetoacetates/blood , Adult , Blood Glucose/metabolism , Carnitine/blood , Carnitine O-Palmitoyltransferase/blood , Child , Child, Preschool , Fasting , Fatty Acids, Nonesterified/blood , Female , Humans , Hydroxybutyrates/blood , Lactates/blood , Male , Middle Aged , Muscular Diseases/enzymology , Muscular Diseases/genetics , Pyruvates/bloodABSTRACT
3 adult women with distinct clinical pictures of progressive myopathy were studied. The morphological findings of biopsied skeletal muscle suggested the diagnosis of type II glycogenosis. Biochemical analysis confirmed a profound deficiency of alpha-1,4-glucosidase activity. Electrophoresis of muscle acid maltase showed the presence of one band in normal individuals. A very faint band with normal electrophoretic mobility was present in the patients' muscles. Muscle neutral maltase is composed of four bands in normal adult individuals: two of the four bands were clearly reduced in the muscles of the patients. The acid and neutral maltases were not significantly reduced in the patients' leukocytes. Acid maltase determination in urine made it possible to identify the homozygous, but not to completely segregate the heterozygous, from unaffected adult subjects.
