Search

Introduction: Complex glycerol kinase (GK) deficiency is a contiguous deletion of genes in Xp21 with loss of the locus for GK, for congenital adrenal hypoplasia (AHC) and/or for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD). We report the case of a 7-year-old patient with this rare disease., Case Report: Our patient was a full-term male, with normal gestation and delivery, and no relevant family history. At the age of 11 days he presented a clinical picture of salt loss with lethargy, vomiting, metabolic acidosis, hypoglycaemia, hyponatraemia and hyperpotassaemia. Fluid therapy and treatment with corticoids was established. The patient's condition developed with moderate mental retardation and progressive muscular weakness. In the physical examination, the skull and face were seen to be 'hourglass' shaped. Decompensations associated to infectious processes and fasting hypoglycaemia, hydroelectrolytic disorders and ketoacidosis are all frequent. Lab findings showed a drop in cortisol levels, elevation of muscle enzymes, 'pseudohypertriglyceridaemia' and raised levels of glycerol in plasma and urine. Karyotype and neuroimaging tests were normal. A myopathic pattern was observed in the electromyogram. The genetic study confirmed the deletion in Xp21 of the genes responsible for DMD, the GK deficit and AHC., Conclusions: Early identification of this disease makes it possible to foresee the acute metabolic decompensations and to establish suitable genetic counselling. CK and triglyceride counts should be performed in all male patients that present a suprarenal hypoplasia; if levels are high, then it is necessary to confirm the raised glycerol values and to carry out a confirmatory genetic study.

Introduction: Myoadenylate deaminase deficiency (MAD) constitutes the most common genetically determined enzymatic defect of the skeletal muscle (2% of the population), however, it causes clinical symptoms such us exercise-related muscle cramps and pain in quite a lower number of patients, being exceptional in children., Case Report: A 7 year old boy is referred with intense myalgias after physical exertion associating increased creatin kinase level 3,273 UI/L (normal 24-195) which goes down in rest period to increase again with myalgias during exercise. The ischemic forearm exercise test shows a flat ammonia curve with a normal lactate rise in relation to control. In muscle biopsy, an absence of the enzymatic activity of myoadenylate deaminase is observed and the genetic analysis proves the 'nonsense' Q12X mutation which he has in a homozygous status., Conclusion: MAD deficiency must be ruled out in every patient with exertional myalgia and increased CK which normalizes when asymptomatic. The ischemic forearm exercise test guides about the muscle metabolic disorder type, although the definitive diagnosis is obtained through the muscle biopsy histoenzymatic analysis and genetic techniques. Although rarely diagnosed in children, MAD deficiency must be included in the differential diagnosis of syndromes with exercise intolerance

In relation to a new case of scleredema "adultorum" (Buschke) observed by authors in a two year-old girl, they compare characteristics of this type of cutaneous induration with those of sclerodermia. Scleredema affects the neck region, face and upper thorax, and very rarely it reaches the hands, meanwhile in sclerodermia the hands and face, and some other possible cutaneous region and viscera are commonly affected. The former regresses in six months to two years, or rarely later; the second is progressive and permanent. Histologically, dermal collagen in increased in both but in the former the fibers are not condensed and hyalinized, as they are in the second.