Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 26, 2021; 9(24): 7133-7138
Published online Aug 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i24.7133
Late-onset Leigh syndrome without delayed development in China: A case report
Jian-Min Liang, Cui-Juan Xin, Guang-Liang Wang, Xue-Mei Wu
Jian-Min Liang, Cui-Juan Xin, Xue-Mei Wu, Department of Pediatric Neurology, 1st Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China
Jian-Min Liang, Cui-Juan Xin, Xue-Mei Wu, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Pediatric Neurology, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China
Guang-Liang Wang, Department of Cardiology, Dalinghe Hospital of Far Eastern Horizon, Dalinghe 121200, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Liang JM drafted the manuscript; Xin CJ collected the data; Wang GL helped draft the manuscript; Wu XM revised the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81801284 and No. 81771396.
Informed consent statement: The parents of the patient provided written informed consent for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Mei Wu, MD, Doctor, Department of Pediatric Neurology, 1st Hospital of Jilin University, No. 1 Xinmin Street, Changchun 130021, Jilin Province, China. xmwu@jlu.edu.cn
Received: December 31, 2020
Peer-review started: December 31, 2020
First decision: June 15, 2021
Revised: June 25, 2021
Accepted: July 6, 2021
Article in press: July 6, 2021
Published online: August 26, 2021
Processing time: 235 Days and 23.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Leigh syndrome (LS) is one of the most common mitochondrial diseases in infants and children. LS often manifests as early-onset with delayed phenotypic development. However, late-onset LS with normal development and white matter lesions in the brain is rarely reported, thereby highlighting the phenotypic variability of LS expression.

CASE SUMMARY

We report a 12-year-old boy who presented with an unusual late-onset and fulminant form of LS that is maternally inherited without developmental delay. The patient was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of ptosis and somnolence, and died within 2 mo. Analysis of peripheral blood leukocytes showed a homoplasmic m.9176T>C mutation in the patient. Magnetic resonance imaging also revealed lesions in bilateral white matter as well as symmetrical lesions in the basal ganglia and brain stem. The patient was diagnosed with LS. The patient was treated with vitamin C, vitamin D, and adenosine-triphosphate. The patient died within 2 mo of hospital admission.

CONCLUSION

LS can present in both infants and older children with different phenotypes.

Keywords: Leigh syndrome; 9176 mutation; Late-onset; Case report

Core Tip: Leigh syndrome (LS) often manifests as early-onset with delayed phenotypic development. However, late-onset LS with normal development and white matter lesions in the brain is rarely reported. Here, we present a late-onset LS case of a previously healthy12-year-old boy that suddenly and unexpectedly died within 2 mo after the onset of symptoms that included myasthenia oculi and subsequent energy failure. Gene analysis revealed that the boy had a T-to-C transition at nucleotide 9176 of the mitochondrial adenosine triphosphatase 6 gene. The current case is reported for the first time in China and highlights the variability of phenotypic expression of LS.