[A rare metabolic disease: alkaptonuria--ochronosis]. / Eine seltene Stoffwechselerkrankung: Alkaptonurie--Ochronose.

The authors describe the case of a 40-year-old female patient. Since childhood her urine had caused black discoloration on her underwear. For about a year the skin of the axillae and pinnae had been bluish-black without subjective complaints. One year before admission, pain in the thoracic and lumbar spine began, with limitation of motion. Examination of the urine, histological and electron microscopical findings, and X-ray examination of the spinal column confirmed the diagnosis of alkaptonuria and congenital ochronosis.

[Exclusion of Sandhoff disease (Tay-Sachs 0 variant) by chorion biopsy]. / Sandhoff-betegség (Tay-Sachs 0 varians) kizárása chorionbiopszia segítségével.

Transcervical chorionic villus sampling with ultrasound guidance at the 11-th week of pregnancy was made at a woman with the history of one lethal case of Sandhoff disease. The total hexosaminidase and the hexosaminidase A were determined. At the 16-th week amniocentesis was performed and the characteristic enzymes were determined from the amniotic cell culture. The results of the examinations made possible to advise the patient to carry out the pregnancy. The examinations after delivery confirmed the newborn to be a carrier.

Biochemical and ultrastructural diagnostic problems in mucolipidoses.

Biochemical and ultrastructural investigations were made in 2 children suffering from mucolipidosis type III. Among the lysosomal hydrolases the activity of beta-galactosidase and alfa-fucosidase diminished in the homogenate of the peripheral leukocytes in case I. The activity of serum and leukocyte arylsulfatase was normal. By electron microscopy typical storage organellums for mucolipidosis were detected in different biopsy materials--liver, skin, conjunctival ones--and in the cytoplasm of the peripheral lymphocytes and leukocytes. Definitive diagnosis was given by the specific electron microscopic investigations detecting the typical storage patterns for mucolipidosis.

[Hereditary pancreatitis]. / Oröklödö hasnyálmirigy-gyulladás.

Attention is drawn to the possible genetic origin of pancreatitis infrequent in childhood. In the case of the authors the diagnosis was supported in the absence of external pathogenic factors by characteristic amino acid excretion which was demonstrable with 8 of the 11 members examined in the family. Genetic relationship is supposed to exist between hereditary pancreatitis and cystin-lysin excretion.