thrombocytopenia

As a result of intracranial calcifications, leukodystrophy and brain cysts, patients have a variety of neurologic signs including spasticity, ataxia, dystonia, cognitive decline, and seizures.  Vascular ectasias may also occur throughout the body such as the intestines, stomach, and in the liver increasing the risk of GI bleeding and portal hypertension with anemia and thrombocytopenia.  Some individuals have sparse hair, abnormal pigmentation of the skin, and dysplastic nails as well. 

Some extraretinal features are also found in patients with dyskeratosis congenita (127550), and in Labrune syndrome (614561).

Affected individuals may be of normal birth weight but skeletal growth is subnormal and there is general developmental delay.  Congenial cardiac anomalies such as persistent ductus arteriosus may be present.  Lymphedema has been noted at one year of age and probably persists throughout life.  Protein-losing enteropathy secondary to intestinal lymphangiectasia was present in one individual.  The same patient had pericardial effusion, hydrothorax, and ascites.  Intellectual disability may be severe although there is no evidence of progression.  Neurosensory hearing loss has been described in one patient.

Thrombocytopenia is a consistent finding and has been described as early as one year of age.  Platelet numbers as low as 52,000/microL have been recorded and appear larger than normal. 

This is a severe systemic disease with perinatal lethality in some patients.  The range of clinical heterogeneity is wide, however, and minimally affected adult patients have also been described.  Individuals with nonneuropathic type I lack central nervous system involvement.  They often do have hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia with bone marrow involvement which are common to all types.  The latter may be responsible for frequent bone fractures and other orthopedic complications such as vertebral compression.  Thrombocytopenia with bleeding complications contributes to the primary anemia which is also present.  Interstitial lung disease can be seen in type I disease but occurs in less than 5% of patients. This is the most common of the three types. 

Patients with type I Gaucher disease have an increased risk of cancer, especially those of the hematological system.  For example, the risk for multiple myeloma has been estimated to be 37 times higher than in the general population.  There is also evidence of an increased incidence of multiple consecutive cancers in this condition.  Enzyme replacement therapy may reduce the risk of malignancies.

Patient with types II (acute neuronopathic [230900]) and III (subacute neuronopathic [231000]) are more likely to have neurologic disease with bulbar and pyramidal signs and sometimes seizures.  In type II, onset is in infancy and lifespan is about 2 years.   They have hepatosplenomegaly with growth arrest and developmental delays after a few months.  The clinical signs in type III or subacute neuronopathic type the onset is later (2.5 years to adulthood) than in type II and progression of neurologic disease is slower.  Early childhood development may appear normal for several years until abnormal extraocular movements or seizures are observed.  Type III is sometimes called Norrbottnian type.