A case of glycogen storage disease in a West Indian infant

A case of glycogen storage disease is described. The patient was a 21 month old female of negroid extraction, who has been ill for over a year. About one week previous to death she developed a pyrexia and tonsilitis, generalised lymphoadenopathy and splenomegaly. At postmortem she was found to have a generalised glycogen storage disease involving heart, liver, muscle, kidneys and macrophagic cells. In addition, she was found to have histological changes in the reticulo-endothelial system consistent with a virus infection, and this was probably the precipating factor in the cause of death. (AU)