Description of the Hamburg Alexander Leukodystrophy Cohort—Insights into Practical Classification and the Care Situation

Background: Alexander disease (AxD) is a rare severe leukodystrophy that has no cure to date. A pathogenic gain-of-function variant in the GFAP gene affects the astrocytes and subsequently the function of the white matter in the CNS. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the most frequent symptoms of nine AxD cases, classified them according to published classifications, and described the need of care and support. Results: The description of the courses of disease of nine cases with AxD reflects the broad spectrum of different phenotypes of AxD, with often occurring apnoea. Data about care and support for AxD patients indicate a high and heterogeneous need of support. Treatment with steroids reduced symptoms in two patients. Some patients showed lasting improvement during their course of disease. Conclusions: The course of AxD is very heterogeneous. Thus, we extracted relevant key features to describe the severity of the disease, namely feeding problems, epilepsy, age-appropriate motor function, failure to thrive, age-appropriate language and apnoea. We recommend early evaluation for clinical care and support. For some AxD patients, treatment with steroids may alleviate symptoms. Further development of efficient treatments is necessary

Palavras-chave

Alexander disease Leukodystrophy Astrocytopathy Neurodegeneration Natural history White matter Severity score Steroids

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/28460

Editora

MDPI

DOI

10.3390/jcm14196918

Coleções

FCB2-Artigos (em revistas ou actas indexadas)
ABC2-Artigos (em revistas ou actas indexadas)
ULS_10.1-MED-Artigos

Licença CC

cclicense-by

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