False-negative prenatal diagnosis of restrictive dermopathy.

Restrictive dermopathy is a rare autosomal recessive lethal skin dysplasia. It has been assumed that the characteristic morphologic abnormalities should allow a reliable prenatal diagnosis on fetal skin biopsies at about 20 weeks pregnancy. We report on a false-negative prenatal diagnosis.

Restrictive dermopathy in two brothers.

Background: Restrictive dermopathy is an autosomal recessive phenotype characterized by universal tautness of skin resulting in fetal akinesia and death during the neonatal period. The clinical signs and symptoms of this uncommon disease are described in two brothers, and evidence is provided that fetal biopsy specimens obtained during the 20th week of gestational age are nondiagnostic.

Observations: The first patient was a growth-retarded preterm boy suffering from generalized desquamation, marked joint contractures, and facial hypoplasia.

Experimental autoimmune retinitis in the rat induced by immunization with rhodopsin: an ultrastructural study.

Experimental autoimmune retinitis induced by immunization with rhodopsin was investigated in the Lewis rat using transmission electron microscopy and light microscopy. The first signs of retinitis consisted of scattered infiltrations of lymphocytes and other mononuclear cells, predominantly in the inner nuclear layer and outer plexiform layer. Occasionally, some macrophages were detected in the photoreceptor cell layer.

Phenotypic expression in mucopolysaccharidosis VII.

beta-glucuronidase deficiency is an extremely rare disorder which is known to have a considerable phenotypic variation. A survey of the clinical findings in 19 previously reported patients with mucopolysaccharidosis VII is presented together with the results of clinical and biochemical studies in two further patients. Because a similar clinical picture is present in a heterozygotic sister it is doubted whether all signs and symptoms can be attributed to the beta-glucuronidase deficiency.

Early infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. Four Dutch cases and review of the literature.

In this paper four Dutch cases of early infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) are described, all being boys. NCL is a group of diseases morphologically characterized by accumulation of autofluorescent ceroid lipofuscin-like pigment. Psychomotor deterioration, impairment of vision, and epileptic manifestations are the major clinical features.