Failure to thrive and death in early infancy associated with raised urinary homovanillic and vanillylmandelic acids.

A case of failure to thrive in an infant with persistently raised urinary levels of homovanillic and vanillylmandelic acids is descirbed. No neural crest tumour was discovered at surgical exploration or at necropsy. The relation of this biochemical abnormality and failure to thrive is unclear.