Metabolic Syndrome in Childhood: Rare Case of Alstrom Syndrome with Blindness.
Alstrom's syndrome (AS) is a rare autosomal recessive ciliopathic condition affecting 1:10,00,000 children. It's a single gene disorder of ALMS1 on chromosome 2 with multisystem involvement with cone-rod retinal dystrophy causing juvenile blindness, obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 Diabetes mellitus, hypogonadism and sensorineural hearing loss. Till now only 800 patients with this disorder has been identified so far. In this report, we describe the case of a 9-year old male boy from south India. He had been initially referred for polyphagia, polyuria, polydipsia, generalized weakness from 1 weeks. On examination he was demonstrated features suggestive of AS, including blindness, obesity, type 2 diabetes, altered lipid profile, hypogonadism, acanthosis nigricans, seborrheic dermatitis, right ear discharge and episodes of respiratory tract infections. So, diagnosis of AS is critical as it can easily be overlooked because of the many features associated with metabolic syndrome starting at age 7, a relatively early age.
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
Afzal
A
Ahmad
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
Benedicta
B
D'Souza
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
Charu
C
Yadav
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
Ashish
A
Agarwal
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
Anand
A
Kumar
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
M
M
Nandini
Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences, Deralakatte, Karnataka India.
Vivian
V
D'Souza
Department of Biochemistry, Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, Karnataka 575004 India.
A M
AM
Poornima
Department of Pediatrics, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, India.
Nutan
N
Kamath
Alstrom syndrome; Diabetes; Metabolic syndrome; Obesity