optic atrophy

This is a progressive disorder of neurological deterioration.  Age of onset (mean 16.4 years) and rate of neurological dysfunction are highly variable.  Gait difficulties are the most common presenting signs.  Some gait ataxia is usually present.  The lower limbs are more severely affected by spasticity and weakness and walking is often delayed with difficulty running and clumsiness in childhood.  Some patients (38%) are wheelchair-bound after disease duration of more than 33 years.  Dysphagia and dysarthria are uncommon. 

Some sensory impairments such as impaired vibratory sense, decreased proprioception, and absent touch sensation in the lower extremities are frequently present.  Urge incontinence of bladder and rectum is sometimes a feature.

Epilepsy and development delay are hallmarks of this condition.  The seizures are of multiple types and have their onset in the first year of life.  The EEG often shows diffuse slowing, multifocal spikes and hypsarrhythmia.  These are often difficult to control.  Severe intellectual disability is usually present.  Feeding difficulties are evident early and slow growth is common.  Hypotonia is common but hyperreflexia and spasticity are also reported.

Brain MRIs show delayed or reduced myelination.  Acquired microcephaly is often seen.

Rapidly progressive muscle weakness and ataxia present in childhood.  Early development may be normal but the first symptoms usually appear by age 2 or 3 years of age.  Cognition is usually normal.  Exercise intolerance soon appears along with dysphonia, dyspnea, dysphagia, and weakness of shoulder, neck and axial muscles.  Wasting and weakness of hand muscles is often noticeable.  Kyphoscoliosis, tongue fasciculations, and areflexia are often seen.  Sensorineural hearing loss is a common feature.

Death from respiratory insufficiency often occurs within a few years after onset.

No systemic abnormalities have been reported.

This is a clinically heterogeneous disorder with extensive neurological deficits.  Patients have feeding and swallowing difficulties from the neonatal period.  There is intrauterine growth retardation and postnatally patients usually exhibit psychomotor delays and intellectual disabilities.  Some develop seizures and few achieve normal developmental milestones.  Axial hypotonia is present from early infancy and most patients have muscle weakness and atrophy.  However, there may be spastic quadriplegia which is often associated with dysmetria, tremor, and athetosis.  Ataxia eventually develops in most patients. 

Brain imaging shows cerebral and cerebellar atrophy, enlarged ventricles, white matter defects, and delayed myelination. 

Incomplete metabolic studies suggest there may be abnormalities in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation activity in at least some tissues.  Most patients have an elevated serum lactate.

Death in childhood is common.

Six patients from 4 unrelated families of mixed ethnic backgrounds have been reported.  Infants within the first 4 to 6 months of life had evidence of developmental delay and neurodevelopmental regression.  Poor feeding and breathing difficulties are often noted in this period.  Other later signs are axial hypotonia, abnormal movements such as tremor, spasticity, hyperkinetic movements, dystonia with eventual regression of milestones.  Joint contractures and kyphoscoliosis may develop. 

Microcephaly was noted in several infants and brain imaging in all patients reveals abnormal T2- weighted signals in the brainstem and specifically in the basal ganglia.  Decreased activity in muscle mitochondrial respiratory complexes I, III, and IV has been documented.  Lactate may be increased in serum and the CSF.  Postmortem studies show brain vascular proliferation and gliosis in basal structures.

Microcephaly is evident at birth with global developmental delay and hearing loss.  One patient of 3 reported in 2 unrelated families had brief flexion seizures at 5 months.  Developmental regression and stagnation may become evident within the first months of life.  The EEG showed a hypsarrhythmia pattern.  Truncal hypotonia, spasticity, dystonia and/or myoclonus, scoliosis, and dysphagia are also features.  Two of the three reported patients had seizures. 

Brain MRI showed a pattern of pontine hypoplasia, partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, modified frontal gyri and diffuse cortical atrophy with enlarged ventricles have been described.  The cerebellum seems to be spared.

There are extensive and, in most cases, progressive CNS abnormalities resulting in severe neurodevelopmental deficits.  Infants at birth have progressive truncal hypotonia and limb spasticity.  Motor deficits result in little spontaneous movement, resulting in poor sucking, and respiratory difficulties.  Language does not develop and there is profound mental retardation. Progressive microcephaly is a characteristic finding.  There are often extrapyramidal signs such as rigidity and dystonic posturing.

Dysmorphic features include a short nose, high-arched palate, low-set and posteriorly rotated ears, micrognathia, postaxial polydactyly, hirsutism, pectus carinatum, contractures of large joints, and hyperextensibility of small joints.

Brain imaging shows a progressive leukoencephalopathy, cerebral and cerebellar atrophy, and delayed myelination.  The corpus callosum is often thin and the ventricles appear enlarged.  The lifespan is generally short with death occurring in infancy or early childhood.