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The urea cycle disorder carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I deficiency is an important differential diagnosis in the encephalopathic neonate. This intoxication type inborn error of metabolism often leads to neonatal death or severe and irreversible damage of the central nervous system, even despite appropriate treatment. Timely diagnosis is crucial, but can be difficult on routine metabolite level. Here, we report ten neonates from eight families (finally) diagnosed with CPS1 deficiency at three tertiary metabolic centres. In seven of them the laboratory findings were dominated by significantly elevated urinary 3-methylglutaconic acid levels which complicated the diagnostic process. Our findings are both important for the differential diagnosis of patients with urea cycle disorders and also broaden the differential diagnosis of hyperammonemia associated with 3-methylglutaconic aciduria, which was earlier only reported in TMEM70 and SERAC1 defect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although hearing loss is a well-known symptom of mitochondria-related disorders, it is not clear how often it is a congenital and cochlear impairment. The Newborn Hearing Screening Program (NHSP) enables to distinguish congenital cochlear deafness from an acquired hearing deficit. The initial aim of the study was to research the frequency of the congenital cochlear hearing loss among patients with various gene defects resulting in mitochondrial disorders. The research process brought on an additional gain: basing on our preliminary study group of 80 patients, in 12 patients altogether we identified two defected genes responsible for mitochondrial disorders, whose carriers did not pass the NHSP. Finally, these patients were diagnosed with the congenital cochlear deafness. The results of the NHSP in the patients with mitochondrial disorders diagnosed in our tertiary reference center were analyzed. Only the cases with confirmed mutations were qualified for the study group. The NHSP database included 80 patients with mutations in 31 different genes: 25 nuclear-encoded and 6 mtDNA-encoded. We searched the literature for the presence of a congenital hearing impairment (CHI) in mitochondrial disorders caused by changes in 278 already known genes. For 68 patients from the study group the NHSP test indicated a proper cochlear function and thus suggested normal hearing. For 12 mitochondrial patients, the NHSP test indicated the requirement for the further audiological diagnosis, and finally CHI was confirmed in 8 of them. This latter subset included patients with pathogenic variants in RRM2B and SERAC1, known as "deafness-causing genes". Contrary to our initial expectations, the patients carrying mutations in other "deafness-causing genes": MPV17 , POLG , COX10 , as well as other mitochondria-related genes, all reported in literature, did not indicate any CHI following the NHSP test. Our study indicates that the cochlear CHI is a phenotypic feature of the RRM2B and SERAC1 related defects. The diagnosis of the CHI following the NHSP allows to early distinguish those defects from other mitochondria-related disorders in which the NHSP test result is correct. Wider studies are needed to assess the significance of this observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Children with ultra-short bowel syndrome (USBS) have not been extensively studied to date because the condition is rare. The aim of the study was to assess the nutritional status of children with USBS receiving home parenteral nutrition, using citrulline serum concentration and cholestasis.Methods: We studied 17 patients with USBS, with a median age of 6.6 years and median duration of parenteral nutrition of 6.6 years. The study was carried out at The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, from January 2014 to January 2015.Results: The median standard deviation score (SDS) was -1.2 for body mass according to chronological age, -1.72 according to height and -0.59 according to height for age. Patients requiring seven days per week parenteral nutrition had a citrulline concentration below 10 μmol/L. Decreased bone-mineral density was observed in 87% of the patients. Low values of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were found in 53% of the children. None of the patients had elevated conjugated bilirubin levels above 34.2 μmol/L.Conclusion: Children with USBS were growth deficient according to their chronological age, with frequent abnormal bone mineralisation and vitamin D deficiency. Children requiring parenteral nutrition seven days a week had citrulline concentrations below 10 μmol/L. Cholestasis was not seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Whole-exome sequencing (WES) has led to an exponential increase in identification of causative variants in mitochondrial disorders (MD).Methods: We performed WES in 113 MD suspected patients from Polish paediatric reference centre, in whom routine testing failed to identify a molecular defect. WES was performed using TruSeqExome enrichment, followed by variant prioritization, validation by Sanger sequencing, and segregation with the disease phenotype in the family.Results: Likely causative mutations were identified in 67 (59.3 %) patients; these included variants in mtDNA (6 patients) and nDNA: X-linked (9 patients), autosomal dominant (5 patients), and autosomal recessive (47 patients, 11 homozygotes). Novel variants accounted for 50.5 % (50/99) of all detected changes. In 47 patients, changes in 31 MD-related genes (ACAD9, ADCK3, AIFM1, CLPB, COX10, DLD, EARS2, FBXL4, MTATP6, MTFMT, MTND1, MTND3, MTND5, NAXE, NDUFS6, NDUFS7, NDUFV1, OPA1, PARS2, PC, PDHA1, POLG, RARS2, RRM2B, SCO2, SERAC1, SLC19A3, SLC25A12, TAZ, TMEM126B, VARS2) were identified. The ACAD9, CLPB, FBXL4, PDHA1 genes recurred more than twice suggesting higher general/ethnic prevalence. In 19 cases, variants in 18 non-MD related genes (ADAR, CACNA1A, CDKL5, CLN3, CPS1, DMD, DYSF, GBE1, GFAP, HSD17B4, MECP2, MYBPC3, PEX5, PGAP2, PIGN, PRF1, SBDS, SCN2A) were found. The percentage of positive WES results rose gradually with increasing probability of MD according to the Mitochondrial Disease Criteria (MDC) scale (from 36 to 90 % for low and high probability, respectively). The percentage of detected MD-related genes compared with non MD-related genes also grew with the increasing MD likelihood (from 20 to 97 %). Molecular diagnosis was established in 30/47 (63.8 %) neonates and in 17/28 (60.7 %) patients with basal ganglia involvement. Mutations in CLPB, SERAC1, TAZ genes were identified in neonates with 3-methylglutaconic aciduria (3-MGA) as a discriminative feature. New MD-related candidate gene (NDUFB8) is under verification.Conclusions: We suggest WES rather than targeted NGS as the method of choice in diagnostics of MD in children, including neonates with 3-MGA aciduria, who died without determination of disease cause and with limited availability of laboratory data. There is a strong correlation between the degree of MD diagnosis by WES and MD likelihood expressed by the MDC scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of isolated hearing loss (HL) associated with the m.3243A.G mutation is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and heteroplasmy level of the m.3243A.G mutation in a large group of Polish patients with postlingual bilateral sensorineural HL of unidentified cause. Methodology/Principal Findings: A molecular search was undertaken in the archival blood DNA of 1482 unrelated patients with isolated HL that had begun at ages between 5 and 40 years. Maternal relatives of the probands were subsequently investigated and all carriers underwent audiological tests. The m.3243A.G mutation was found in 16 of 1482 probands (an incidence of 1.08%) and 18 family members. Of these 34 individuals, hearing impairment was detected in 29 patients and the mean onset of HL was at 26 years. Some 42% of the identified m.3243A.G carriers did not develop multisystem symptomatology over the following 10 years. Mean heteroplasmy level of m.3243A.G was lowest in blood at a level of 14% and highest in urine at 58%. These values were independent of the manifested clinical severity of the disease. Conclusions: A single m.3243A.G carrier can usually be found among each 100 individuals who have postlingual hearing loss of unknown cause. Urine samples are best for detecting the m.3243A.G mutation and diagnosing mitochondrially inherited hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isovaleric acidemia (IVA) is an autosomal recessive leucine inborn error of metabolism caused by isovaleryl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. The disease has various courses, from severe ones manifesting in newborns to the intermittent form with first manifestation in children and adults. The aim of this study was to analyze clinical and neurological outcomes in Polish patients with IVA. Ten patients diagnosed and treated in The Children's Memorial Health Institute were included in the study. The diagnosis was based on tandem MS (increased level of C5 acylcarnitine) and urine GCMS (increased isovalerylglycine, and 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid). Molecular analysis was performed in seven patients (70%) leading to the detection of pathogenic variants in the IVD gene in all of them. A retrospective analysis of patients' medical records included: demographics, symptoms at diagnosis, medical management, and biochemical and clinical outcomes following therapy. The median follow-up time (median; Q1–Q2) was 2.5 years (1.5–9.0) for newborn screening (NBS) and family screening (FS) children, and 17 years (5.0–20) for symptomatic patients. Five patients were in a good clinical state, four children presented mild neurological symptoms, and one—severely delayed child. In the IVD gene, five known and two novel variants (p.466C>G, c.1132G>A) were identified. Molecular analysis was performed in seven patients leading to identification of biallelic pathogenic variants in the IVD gene in all of them. We can conclude that long-term clinical and neurological outcomes of patients with IVA were satisfactory as a result of an early diagnosis and proper management. Although early treatment did not prevent decompensations, they were milder in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]