Jiménez GY, Esquivel SL, Fleites GY, León AY

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 754-759
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ABSTRACT

Maple syrup urine disease is an autosomal recessive genetic degenerative brain disease. It is caused by a deficit in branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase activity, which causes inadequate storage of the three essential amino acids of said chain. This generates severe neurotoxicity that can lead to death. It is clinically manifested by neurological deterioration, psychomotor retardation, feeding problems, urine with a characteristic odor. Its cerebral consequences can be defined by computerized axial tomography. This article aims to present a case of maple syrup urine disease with bilateral hypodensity of the basal ganglia due to mirror necrosis, detected by tomographic study. This is a 9-years-old female patient with a history of non-diabetic ketoacidosis. After the appendectomy, she began with a coma that required a tomographic study, which revealed cerebral edema. She evolved torpidly, requiring a new tomographic study that showed worsening of the neurological conditions as bilateral hypodensity at the level of the basal nuclei due to necrosis was reflected in the image. Maple syrup urine disease is a rare condition with various clinical forms. It requires laboratory studies to confirm it and images such as computed tomography that, as in this case, help to show the neurological damage. The hypodensity of the basal ganglia associated with cerebral edema was very characteristic.