Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
    J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1995 Mar;58(3):320-5.

    Progressive neuronal degeneration of childhood with liver disease (Alpers' disease) presenting in young adults.

    Source

    National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK.

    Abstract

    Two unrelated and previously healthy girls, aged 17 and 18, presented with a subacute encephalopathy, visual and sensory symptoms and signs, and prominent seizures that were difficult to control. Brain MRI showed lesions (high signal on T2 weighted images) in the occipital lobes and thalamus; EEG showed slow wave activity with superimposed polyspikes. Inexorable downhill progression led to death in hepatic failure within eight months of onset. Histopathological findings in both patients ((a) chronic hepatitis with prominent bile duct proliferation, fatty change, and fibrosis; (b) in the brain a patchy destruction of the cerebral cortex, predominantly involving striate cortex) were characteristic of progressive neuronal degeneration of childhood with liver disease--Alpers-Huttenlocher syndrome--a rare autosomal recessive disorder usually seen in infants and young children.

    PMID:
    7897414
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC1073369
    Free PMC Article

      Supplemental Content

      Icon for HighWire Press Icon for PubMed Central

      Save items

      loading

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk