Severe aplastic anemia of neonatal onset: a single-center retrospective study of six children.

We report severe aplastic anemia of neonatal onset diagnosed in six girls between 1985 and 1995 in a single center. Initial blood cell counts (mean age 3.8 days old, 1 to 15 days) showed thrombocytopenia (six of six), anemia (four of six), and neutropenia (two of six). Neutrophil counts gradually decreased below 0.5 x 10(9)/L, and severe aplastic anemia occurred in three patients by 3 months of age and in all patients by 1 year of age. Lymphocyte number and functions were normal. In all children bone marrow biopsy showed hypocellularity for age and absence of fibrosis, blasts, lymphocytic infiltrates, and cytologic abnormalities. Blood and medullary cytogenetic studies were normal. A search for known constitutional, viral, or toxic causes was negative. Immunosuppressive therapy failed to restore hematopoiesis (three of six). Five children received a bone marrow transplantation at an average age of 9 months (range 2.7 to 29 months). One child is alive and well after a human leukocyte antigen-identical bone marrow transplantation, whereas the other four died. Both congenital onset and the high rate of familial involvement suggest that this condition may be inherited.

Digestive tract involvement in Langerhans cell histiocytosis. The French Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis Study Group.

BACKGROUND: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease with a wide clinical spectrum. Although little is known of gastrointestinal involvement in LCH, it may be a major clinical problem. We investigated clinical, pathologic, and immunohistochemical features of digestive tract LCH involvement in children. PATIENTS: Selection criteria consisted of the presence of LCH with digestive symptoms, and histologic confirmation of gastrointestinal involvement. Seven children (2%) met the criteria among 348 cases of LCH in a French national retrospective survey from 1983 to 1993. Two children whose LCH was diagnosed in 1994 were also selected. RESULTS: Nine children with LCH and digestive tract involvement were studied. Clinical features at presentation included skin (9/9) and mucosal (4/9) involvement, failure to thrive (5/9), diarrhea (7/9), bloody stools (4/7), vomiting (4/9), and hypoalbuminemia (8/9). Five of the nine children died; factors associated with a poor prognosis included young age, organ dysfunction (stage 4), and need for parenteral nutrition. Unlike control biopsy specimens, LCH cells of children with digestive tract involvement disclosed expression of the mucosal homing receptor integrin alpha 4 beta 7 on frozen skin and digestive tract biopsy specimens. CONCLUSION: Cutaneous, mucosal, and digestive tract involvement in LCH is a clinicopathologic entity. The prognosis and treatment of LCH depend on the extent of the disease; therefore the treatment of these disseminated forms should not be delayed. Thus children with cutaneous LCH and digestive symptoms should undergo digestive tract biopsies. Studies of homing receptors may contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of dissemination in LCH.

Intractable diarrhea of infancy with epithelial and basement membrane abnormalities.

We describe a form of intractable diarrhea in six children (four girls) with similar clinical histories and identical histopathologic features. The children had watery diarrhea of neonatal onset requiring total parenteral nutrition. Two had siblings who had died of diarrhea in the first year of life; two others are sisters. Repeated duodenal or jejunal biopsies revealed villous atrophy with normal or hyperplastic and regenerative cryptae, normal cellularity of the lamina mesenterii propria, and no signs of T-cell activation. The main histologic features are epithelial dysplasia with focal crowding and disorganization of the surface enterocytes, pseudocystic formation of the glands, and abnormal regenerative cryptae. The basement membrane components were studied with polyclonal antibodies on frozen specimens, and were compared with biopsy specimens from patients with celiac disease or autoimmune enteropathy. Relative to the control subjects, there was faint and irregular deposition of laminin at the epithelium-lamina mesenterii propria interface, whereas deposits of heparan sulfate proteoglycan were large and lamellar. The primary or secondary nature of these modifications of the basement membrane remains to be determined, but the modifications might be related to epithelial abnormalities and to the severity of this neonatal diarrhea, which resisted all treatment and necessitated permanent total parenteral nutrition.

Intractable infant diarrhea associated with phenotypic abnormalities and immunodeficiency.

We report on eight children with severe diarrhea beginning in the first 6 months of life (< 1 month in six cases), who had a number of features in common. All were small for gestational age and had an abnormal phenotype, including facial dysmorphism, hypertelorism, and woolly, easily removable hair with trichorhexis nodosa. Two were products of consanguineous marriages. Severe secretory diarrhea persisted despite bowel rest (n = 7). Jejunal biopsy specimens showed total or subtotal villous atrophy with crypt necrosis, and inconstant T-cell activation in some cases (n = 3). Colon biopsy specimens showed moderate nonspecific colitis. All the patients had defective antibody responses despite normal serum immunoglobulin levels, and defective antigen-specific skin tests despite positive proliferative responses in vitro. Three had monoclonal hyper-immunoglobulinemia A. The course was marked by diffuse erythroderma in two cases and mental retardation in three. Treatment included bowel rest, intravenous administration of immune globulins, administration of corticosteroids (n = 6) and cyclosporine (n = 2), and bone marrow transplantation (n = 1). Five patients died between the ages of 2 and 5 years (of sepsis or cirrhosis), two are being fed enterally, and one continues to receive total parenteral nutrition. The cause of the combined low birth weight, dysmorphism, severe diarrhea, trichorrhexis, and immunodeficiency is unclear. These features may constitute a specific syndrome within the group of intractable diarrheas of infancy.