Mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is one of the mitochondrial disorders that can present as a stroke-like episode or seizure. Although the pathophysiology of MELAS remains inconclusive, the main possibilities are thus far thought to be mitochondrial cytopathy and angiopathy. This case report describes a 61-year-old woman diagnosed with MELAS who presented simultaneously with vascular hyperemia and crossed cerebellar diaschisis.
Acidosis, Lactic ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperemia ; Kearns-Sayre Syndrome ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathies ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Seizures

Mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is one of the mitochondrial disorders that can present as a stroke-like episode or seizure. Although the pathophysiology of MELAS remains inconclusive, the main possibilities are thus far thought to be mitochondrial cytopathy and angiopathy. This case report describes a 61-year-old woman diagnosed with MELAS who presented simultaneously with vascular hyperemia and crossed cerebellar diaschisis.
Acidosis, Lactic ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperemia ; Kearns-Sayre Syndrome ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathies ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Seizures

Mitochondrion is an intracellular organelle with its own genome. Its function in cellular metabolism is indispensable that mitochondrial dysfunction gives rise to multisystemic failure. The manifestation is most prominent with tissues of high energy demand such as muscle and nerve. Mitochondrial myopathies occur not only by mutations in mitochondrial genome, but also by defects in nuclear genes or secondarily by toxic insult on mitochondrial replication. Currently curative treatment modality does not exist and symptomatic treatment remains mainstay. Administration of L-arginine holds great promise according to the recent reports. Advances in mitochondrial RNA import might enable a new therapeutic strategy.
Arginine ; Genome ; Genome, Mitochondrial ; MELAS Syndrome ; MERRF Syndrome ; Mitochondria ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Muscles ; Ophthalmoplegia, Chronic Progressive External ; Organelles ; RNA

External ophthalmoplegia and ptosis are common manifestations of mitochondrial cytopathy, such as chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO). However, these symptoms and signs may also be presenting features of myasthenia gravis (MG). There are a few reports of CPEO with elevated acetylcholine receptor antibody (AchR-Ab). We report a case of AD-type CPEO with elevated acetylcholine receptor binding antibody. We confirmed a mutation on the SLC25A4 gene by molecular analysis.
Acetylcholine ; Kearns-Sayre Syndrome ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Myasthenia Gravis ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Ophthalmoplegia, Chronic Progressive External

Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome is one of the classic mitochondrial diseases characterized by symptoms of repeated episodes of hemiparesis with mitochondrial DNA mutation. We report a rare case of early onset MELAS patient confirmed by genetic analysis with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
Acidosis, Lactic ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; Humans ; MELAS Syndrome ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathies ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Paresis ; Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome

MELAS is a mitochondrial respiratory chain disorder characterized by progressive neurodegeneration associated with stroke-like episode, increased plasma lactate levels and distinctive findings on neuroimaging studies. Hence we onset of right-sided hemiplegia accompanied by lactic acidosis and CT-Scan findings of diffuse hypodensity of the cerebral white matter at the time of the stroke-like episode. The diagnosis was confirmed by mutation analysis on blood and hair which showed the typical mtDNA A3243G mutation. This is the first local report of a confirmed case of MELAS.
Human ; Female ; Child Preschool ; MELAS SYNDROME ; MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASES ; MUSCULAR DISEASES ; MITOCHONDRIAL MYOPATHIES ; MITOCHONDRIAL ENCEPHALOMYOPATHIES

According to the recently published reports about mitochondrial diseasbl the clinical manifestations are more various than expected. There have been no clinical studies covering whole spectrum of mitochond7iral disease except a few case reports in our country. The authors performed this studies to understand the various clinical and laboratory findings of mitochondrial disease and the usefulness of current tools for the diagnosis of mitochondrial diseases. We reviewed retrospectively the clinical, laboratory and pathologic findings of mitochondrial disease. The diagnosis of mitochondrial disease was based on clinical manifestations, 'ragged-red fiber' in Gomori stainging, and/or abnormal mitochondrial morphologies on electron microscopy. Twenty one patients were diagnosed as mitochondrial disease. Their clinical diagnosis included 7 MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes); 3 MERRF (myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers); 2 KSS (Kearns-Sayre syndrome); 7 CPEO (chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia); and 2 mitochondrial myopathy. The usefulness of electrodiagnostic studies, such as EMG, NCV and FEG, were limited in some patients. The muscle biopsy showed ragged red fibers in 10 of 15 sampled examined. Eleven patients had abnormal serum lactic acid level. The authors found that the mitochondrial disease revealed broad clinical spectrum and clinically available diagnostic tests, such as serum lactate and light microscopic examination showed limited value. Therefore, to evaluate the mitochondrial dysfunction with systemic involvement may be desirable to depend on sensitive and specific methods including succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) staining, electron microscopy and biologic studies of mitochondrial DNA.
Acidosis, Lactic ; Biopsy ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; Epilepsy ; Humans ; Lactic Acid ; MELAS Syndrome ; MERRF Syndrome ; Microscopy, Electron ; Mitochondrial Diseases* ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Muscular Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia, Chronic Progressive External ; Retrospective Studies ; Succinate Dehydrogenase

PURPOSE: We evaluated brain perfusion SPECT findings of MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy in correlation with MR imaging in search of specific imaging features. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were five patients (four females and one male; age range, 1 to 25 year) who presented with repeated stroke-like episodes, seizures or developmental delay or asymptomatic but had elevated lactic acid in CSF and serum. Conventional non-contrast MR imaging and Tc-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) brain perfusion SPECT were performed and imaging features were analyzed. RESULTS: MRI demonstrated increased T2 signal intensities in the affected areas of gray and white matters mainly in the parietal (4/5) and occipital lobes (4/5) and in the basal ganglia (1/5), which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. SPECT demonstrated decreased perfusion in the corresponding regions of MRI lesions. In addition, there were perfusion defects in parietal (1 patient), temporal (2), and frontal (1) lobes and basal ganglia (1) and thalami (2). In a patient with mitochondrial myopathy who had normal MRI, decreased perfusion was noted in left parietal area and bilateral thalami. CONCLUSION: Tc-99m ECD SPECT imaging in patients with MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy showed hypoperfusion of parieto-occipital cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus and temporal cortex, which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. There were no specific imaging features on SPECT. The significance of abnormal perfusion on SPECT without corresponding MR abnormalities needs to be evaluated further in larger number of patients.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain* ; Female ; Humans ; Lactic Acid ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; MELAS Syndrome* ; Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathies ; Mitochondrial Myopathies* ; Occipital Lobe ; Perfusion ; Rabeprazole ; Seizures ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

PURPOSE: Chronic progressive external ophtahlmoplegia(CPEO) is a common phenotype of mitochondrial myopathy. CPEO has wide clinical spectrum with variable severity and can be divided into 3 groups; Kearns-Sayre syndrome, ophthalmoplegia plus and isolated CPEO. Single large-scale deletion, multiple deletions, point mutation of muscle mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) and nuclear gene defect are associated with CPEO. We reviewed two cases of CPEO associated with the gene defect of mtDNA. METHODS: mtDNA was extracted from muscle biopsy tissue and blood leukocytes. We carried out polymerase chain reaction(PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay and automated sequencing of the mtDNA. RESULTS: Case 1 presented with progressive external ophthalmoplegia, short stature, hypothyroidism and sensorineural hearing loss. A novel 7.6 kb-deletion was found in muscle and leukocyte mtDNA. Case 2 presented with isolated CPEO. A novel 6.2 kb- deletion was found in muscle mtDNA. CONCLUSION: We detected novel single large-scale deletion of mtDNA in 2 cases of CPEO with various clinical manifestations in our population. We have to investigate multi-organ involvement with regular follow-up for patients who present with progressive ophthalmoplegia
Biopsy ; DNA, Mitochondrial* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Hypothyroidism ; Kearns-Sayre Syndrome ; Leukocytes ; Mitochondria ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Ophthalmoplegia, Chronic Progressive External* ; Phenotype ; Point Mutation ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length

PURPOSE: Chronic progressive external ophtahlmoplegia(CPEO) is a common phenotype of mitochondrial myopathy. CPEO has wide clinical spectrum with variable severity and can be divided into 3 groups; Kearns-Sayre syndrome, ophthalmoplegia plus and isolated CPEO. Single large-scale deletion, multiple deletions, point mutation of muscle mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) and nuclear gene defect are associated with CPEO. We reviewed two cases of CPEO associated with the gene defect of mtDNA. METHODS: mtDNA was extracted from muscle biopsy tissue and blood leukocytes. We carried out polymerase chain reaction(PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay and automated sequencing of the mtDNA. RESULTS: Case 1 presented with progressive external ophthalmoplegia, short stature, hypothyroidism and sensorineural hearing loss. A novel 7.6 kb-deletion was found in muscle and leukocyte mtDNA. Case 2 presented with isolated CPEO. A novel 6.2 kb- deletion was found in muscle mtDNA. CONCLUSION: We detected novel single large-scale deletion of mtDNA in 2 cases of CPEO with various clinical manifestations in our population. We have to investigate multi-organ involvement with regular follow-up for patients who present with progressive ophthalmoplegia
Biopsy ; DNA, Mitochondrial* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Hypothyroidism ; Kearns-Sayre Syndrome ; Leukocytes ; Mitochondria ; Mitochondrial Myopathies ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Ophthalmoplegia, Chronic Progressive External* ; Phenotype ; Point Mutation ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length