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The case records of eight children with an acute spinal cord lesion after cardiac surgery were reviewed. All had been operated on for congenital heart disease over the past 10 years. The prognosis for neurological recovery was poor and scoliosis and bladder dysfunction were common complications. Ischaemic cord injury is usually associated with coarctation of the aorta but may occur when surgery is performed for other cardiovascular defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a review of twelve cases of Friedreich's ataxia, the important criteria for early diagnosis were identified. Clinical signs included absent tendon reflexes, ataxic gait, and a positive Romberg test. Nerve conduction velocities showed absent or severely slowed sensory conduction, with normal motor conduction. In addition, echocardiographic changes of symmetrical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two unrelated children with von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis (NF1) had mothers with cutaneous NF1 lesions in a limited distribution. The cutaneous pattern in the mother of case 1 was clearly segmental, and probably represents mosaicism for the NF1 mutation which was passed on to the child. In the second case the distribution in the mother was less obviously segmental, but may still represent mosaicism. It is more difficult to diagnose mosaicism for NF1 in individuals with no affected offspring, or with more limited cutaneous manifestations. The difficulties in defining segmental NF and assigning a genetic risk are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two ataxia telangiectasia patients with unusual clinical and cellular features are described. Cultured fibroblasts and PHA stimulated lymphocytes from these two patients showed a smaller increase of radiosensitivity than cells from other A-T patients, as measured by colony forming ability or induced chromosome damage respectively, after exposure to ionising radiation. The response of DNA synthesis to irradiation of these cells was, however, the same as for other A-T patients. Cells from a third patient with some clinical features of A-T but with a very protracted course also showed low levels of radiation induced chromosome damage, but colony forming ability and the response of DNA synthesis after irradiation were no different from cells of normal subjects. There was, however, an increased level of translocations and unstable chromosomal rearrangements in this patient's lymphocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A family is described in which three children have neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis and two of them also have an arthropathy. Clinically the children have the late infantile form but pathological evidence shows the recognised overlap with the juvenile form. A fourth child with joint involvement but with normal skin biopsies is described. It is suggested that this family have a specific form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis with arthropathy and that accumulation of metabolites in this storage disease may be age dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report the case of a 2-year-old boy with seizures who developed hepatic failure shortly after commencing sodium valproate. Unexpectedly, liver function returned to normal on stopping the drug. Sequencing of the mitochondrial polymerase gamma gene (POLG1) revealed four heterozygous substitutions, two of which have been identified in cases of Alpers-Huttenlocher disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]