Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in an Infant Due to Primary Carnitine Deficiency (PCD); A Rare Case

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is known to have ventricular dilatation and dysfunction in myocardium. Primary carnitine deficiency (PCD) is a not common but a reversible autosomal recessive phenomenon with supplementation of carnitine. Case presentation- 11-month male child was brought with complain of fever, cough, cold since 7 days and increased work of breathing for 15 days. 2 D echo was done suggestive of dilated cardiomyopathy. His initial investigations; chest Xray revealed significant cardiomegaly electrocardiography, (ECG) showed prolonged QT interval fraction. Patient was treated with syrup carnitine syrup empirically, as there is no way to determine a fatty acid oxidation profile. Repeated 2D echocardiogram (2 D ECHO) was suggestive of recovery. Conclusions: Carnitine deficiency could be the cause of cardiomyopathy and so treatment of carnitine supplementation can be considered empirically to avoid life-threatening complication related to cardiomyopathy.

Biochemical and genetic characteristics of patients with primary carnitine deficiency identified through newborn screening

Background Primary carnitine deficiency (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of carnitine transportation that leads to impaired fatty acid oxidation. Large-scale studies on newborn screening (NBS) for PCD are limited. This study aimed to investigate the biochemical and genetic characteristics of patients with PCD detected through NBS. Results A total of 548 247 newborns were screened for PCD between January 2014 and June 2021; 1714 newborns with low free carnitine (C0) levels were called back and 49 patients were diagnosed with PCD. The latest incidence rate in Quanzhou, China, was estimated to be 1 in 11 189 newborns. NBS results showed that the 49 patients had varying degrees of decreased C0 levels, whereas seven patients exhibited normal C0 levels during the recall review. All patients harbored biallelic pathogenic variants of the SLC22A5 gene. Nineteen distinct SLC22A5 variants were detected in these 49 patients, and most of the detected variants were clustered in exons 1, 4, and 7. The top eight variants had an allele frequency of 86.73%. The most common variant was c.760C > T (p.R254*) with an allele frequency of 31.63%, followed by c.51C > G (p.F17L) (17.35%) and c.1400C > G (p.S467C) (16.33%). The C0 level of patients with the N/N genotype was significantly lower than that of the M/M group. The C0 levels of patients with genotypes of R254*/R254* and R254*/F17L were far lower than those of patients with the R254*/S467C genotype. Conclusions This study presented more than 500,000 NBS data with the latest incidence of 1:11 189 in the Quanzhou area. The SLC22A5 variant spectrum in the selected southern Chinese population has been updated. Patients with null variants were associated with low C0 levels. Combining NBS with genetic testing is critical to improve screening efficiency because patients with PCD may have normal C0 levels during NBS and recall review.

Biochemical And Genetic Characteristics of Patients With Primary Carnitine Deficiency Identified Through Newborn Screening

Background: Primary carnitine deficiency (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of the carnitine transportation that leads to impaired fatty acid oxidation. Large-scale studies on newborn screening (NBS) for PCD are limited. This study aimed to investigate the biochemical and genetic characteristics of patients with PCD detected by NBS.Results: A total of 548,247 newborns were screened for PCD between January 2014 and June 2021, 1714 newborns had low free carnitine (C0) levels were called back and forty-nine patients were diagnosed with PCD. The latest incidence rate in Quanzhou, China was estimated to be 1 in 11,189 newborns. NBS results showed that all patients had varying degrees of decreased C0 levels, while seven patients exhibited normal C0 levels during recall review. All patients harbored biallelic pathogenic variants in the SLC22A5 gene. Nineteen distinct SLC22A5 variants were detected in the 49 patients, most of the detected variants were clustered in exons 1, 4, and 7. The top eight variants together had an allele frequency of 86.73%. The most common variant was c.760C>T (p.R254*) with an allele frequency of 31.63%, followed by c.51C>G (p.F17L) (17.35%) and c.1400C>G (p.S467C) (16.33%). The C0 level of patients with N/N genotype was significantly lower than that of M/M group. The C0 level of patients with genotypes of R254*/R254* and R254*/F17L were far lower than patients with genotype of R254*/S467C.Conclusions: This study presented more than 500,000 NBS data with the latest incidence of 1:11,189 in Quanzhou area. The SLC22A5 variant spectrum in the selected southern Chinese population was updated. Patients with null variants were associated with low C0 levels. It is necessary to combine genetic testing to improve screening efficiency due to PCD patients may have normal C0 levels during NBS and recall review.

Primary Carnitine Deficiency and Autism Spectrum Disorder is there a Relationship?

Carnitine plays essential role in energy metabolism .Systemic primary carnitine deficiency is a genetic disorder caused by decreased or absent organic cation transporter type 2 (OCTN2) carnitine transporter activity, resulting in low serum carnitine levels and decreased carnitine accumulation inside cells. The decrease carnitine results in impaired fatty acid oxidation. Primary carnitine deficiency presents a hypoketotic, hypoglycemia and hepatic encephalopathy. Recently, primary carnitine deficiency has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorders. A seven year-old schoolgirl with intellectual deficit, autistic features and primary carnitine deficiency has been reported. A significant decrease in carnitine levels has been shown in patients with autism and this has been related to the existence of a mitochondrial disease and more severe autism. The early identification of patients with low levels of carnitine or primary carnitine deficiency, with the different methods of measuring free carnitine, including tandem mass spectrometry could help to identify these patients early and achieve an early treatment and better neurological prognosis, because autism spectrum disorders may be preventable in this subgroup. We hope that this paper is useful to neurologists and pediatricians, and may give them more reason to suspect a diagnosis of PCD and autism.

Newborn Screening and Genetic Analysis Identify Six Novel Genetic Variants for Primary Carnitine Deficiency in Ningbo Area, China

Primary carnitine deficiency (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder that could result in sudden death. It is caused by a defect in the carnitine transporter encoded by SLC22A5 (Solute Carrier Family 22 Member 5, MIM:603377). Currently, a number of variants in SLC22A5 have been identified, however, the PCD prevalence and its variants in Ningbo area are unclear. In this study, we screened 265,524 newborns by using tandem mass spectrometry. Variants in SLC22A5 were further detected by next-generation sequencing in individuals with abnormal free carnitine levels (C0). We identified 53 newborns with abnormal C0 levels and 26 with variants in SLC22A5. Among them, 16 with compound heterozygous or homozygous variants in SLC22A5 were diagnosed with PCD, suggesting the PCD birth prevalence in Ningbo city was 1/16,595. Moreover, the C0 level was significantly (P = 0.013) higher in PCD patients than in those with one variant. Besides, the c.1400C > G (p. S467C) and c.51C > G (p. F17L) variants were the most frequent and six novel variants are all predicted to be damaging. This study reports the largest PCD patients in Ningbo area by newborn screening and expands the variant spectrum of SLC22A5. Our findings demonstrate the clinical value of combining NBS program results with DNA analysis for the diagnosis of PCD.

Increased detection of primary carnitine deficiency through second-tier newborn genetic screening

Background Newborn screening for primary carnitine deficiency (NBS) is commonly implemented worldwide; however, it has poor sensitivity. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of improving screening by including a second-tier genetic assay. Results An Agena iPLEX assay was developed to identify 17 common SLC22A5 mutations in Chinese populations and was applied in NBS as a second-tier screening. From January 2017 to December 2018, 204,777 newborns were screened for PCD using tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 316 (0.15%) residual NBS-positive specimens with low free carnitine (C0) levels were subjected to this second-tier screening. The screening identified 20 screen-positive newborns who harboured biallelic mutations in theSLC22A5 gene, 99 carriers with one mutation, and 197 screen-negative newborns with no mutations. Among the 99 carriers, four newborns were found to have a second disease-causing SLC22A5mutation by further genetic analysis. Among the 197 screen-negatives were four newborns with persistently low C0 levels, and further genetic analysis revealed that one newborn had two novel SLC22A5 pathogenic variants. In total, 25 newborns were diagnosed with PCD, for a positive predictive value of 7.91% (25/316). Based on these data, we estimate the incidence of PCD in Quanzhou is estimated to be 1:8191.Thirteen distinct SLC22A5 variants were identified, and the most common was c.760C > T, with an allelic frequency of 32% (16/50), followed by c.1400C > G (7/50, 14%), and c.51C > G (7/50, 14%). Conclusion Data from this study revealed that 24% (6/25) of PCD cases would have been missed by conventional NBS. This high-throughput iPLEX assay is a powerful tool for PCD genotyping. The addition of this second-tier genetic screening to the current NBS program could identify missed PCD cases, thereby increasing PCD detection. However, further studies are needed to optimise the workflow of the new screening algorithm and to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of this screening approach.