Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0007758 (cerebellar ataxia)
 3,609 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A further child with giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), abnormally curly hair and consanguineous parents is described. Of the 19 patients with GAN so far reported in the literature, six, including the present patient, have resulted from consanguineous marriages. This makes autosomal recessive inheritance of GAN highly probable. Our patient also exhibited cerebellar ataxia and signs of pyramidal tract damage; magnetic resonance brain imaging demonstrated abnormalities within the cerebellar and cerebral white matter. Myelinated nerve fibre density in the sural nerve was reduced to 6790/mm2 at age 8 years and had fallen to 3812/mm2 16 months later, indicating that progressive axonal loss occurs in GAN.
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PMID:Giant axonal neuropathy: observations on a further patient. 284 42

We report the clinical and postmortem neuropathological findings in a case of long-standing giant axonal neuropathy. The patient, a caucasian male with kinky hair, was first seen at 4 years of age because of increasing unsteadiness of gait. Clinical examination showed nystagmus, cerebellar ataxia, distal sensory loss, and weakness. A sural nerve biopsy at 8 years of age revealed giant axonal neuropathy. The patient became increasingly demented and was incapacitated by weakness and ataxia; he died at 18 years of age. Histological examination of the brain and spinal cord showed numerous Rosenthal fibers, a distal axonopathy that most severely affected the corticospinal tracts, middle cerebellar peduncles, and posterior columns, and olivocerebellar degeneration.
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PMID:Giant axonal neuropathy: correlation of clinical findings with postmortem neuropathology. 363 24

Mutations in the pantothenate kinase 2 gene (PANK2) are the cause of pantothenate kinase associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), an autosomal recessive (AR) disorder characterized by motor symptoms as such as dystonia or parkinsonism, mental retardation, retinitis pigmentosa and iron accumulation in the brain. As many neurodegenerative conditions have similar clinical features we screened a number of adult and childhood onset movement disorders for PANK2 mutation. This included cases with neurodegeneration and brain iron accumulation, corticobasal degeneartion, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atropy, giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), neuroaxonal dystrophy (NAD), Guam dementia and HARP syndrome (pallido-pyramidal syndrome and hypoprebetalipoproteinemia, acanthocytosis, retinitis pigmentosa and pallidal degeneration). From our series of patients one patient with PKAN and a progressive severe dystonic syndrome, cerebellar ataxia, retinitis pigmentosa and eventual anarthria had a novel combination of two compound heterozygote mutations identified in the PANK2 gene, G-->A transition at base 1238 (G411R) and a C-->A transition at base 1184 (A395E). In the patient with HARP syndrome two compound heterozygote mutations (Met327Thr and IVS5-1 G to T) in the PANK2 gene were found. No other mutations were found in any of the other patient groups, suggesting that PANK2 mutations are not associated with the aetiology of these adult degenerative conditions and confirms the genetic heterogeneity in neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation.
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PMID:PANK2 gene analysis confirms genetic heterogeneity in neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) but mutations are rare in other types of adult neurodegenerative disease. 1696 35