0000000000331791
AUTHOR
Peter Heim
Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis: Quantitative description of the clinical course in patients withCLN2 mutations
We examined 26 individuals with clinical and electron microscopic signs of late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (LINCL). In 22 cases, we found both pathogenic alleles. Sixteen patients exclusively carried either one or a combination of the two common mutations R208X and IVS5-1G > C. In the remaining cases, four missense mutations could be detected, of which R127Q, N286S, and T353P represent novel, previously not described alleles. A clinical performance score was developed by rating motor, visual, and verbal functions and the incidence of cerebral seizures in 3-month intervals during the course of the disease. A Total Disability Score was derived by summing up the single scores for…
Incidence of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses in West Germany: Variation of a method for studying autosomal recessive disorders
The incidence of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses (NCL) in West Germany was determined using a novel method which is applicable to other autosomal recessively inherited diseases. Questionnaires were sent to all pediatric departments (answer rate 189/276, 68%), schools for the blind (39/46, 85%), and neuropathological institutes (15/22, 68%). Diagnoses were accepted only when based on firm clinical and/or electron microscopic criteria; 207 such identified patients were sorted according to year of birth. Plotting the cumulative number of new cases per year against the year of birth resulted in a slightly S-shaped curve. Before the year 1962, the curve is relatively flat, probably due to ineffic…