High incidence of later-onset fabry disease revealed by newborn screening.

ABSTRACT: The classic phenotype of Fabry disease, X-linked alpha -galactosidase A (alpha -Gal A) deficiency, has an estimated incidence of approximately 1 in 50,000 males. The recent recognition of later-onset variants suggested that this treatable lysosomal disease is more frequent. To determine the disease incidence, we undertook newborn screening by assaying the alpha-Gal A activity in blood spots from 37,104 consecutive Italian male neonates. Enzyme-deficient infants were retested, and "doubly screened-positive" infants and their relatives were diagnostically confirmed by enzyme and mutation analyses. Twelve (0.03%) neonates had deficient alpha-Gal A activities and specific mutations, including four novel missense mutations (M51I, E66G, A73V, and R118C), three missense mutations (F113L, A143T, a

SUBMITTER: Spada M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1474133 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature