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Start free with EleplanEthylmalonic encephalopathy
ORPHA:51188Disease
What it is
A rare, early-onset, progressive neurologic disease characterized by elevated excretion of ethylmalonic acid (EMA) with recurrent petechiae, orthostatic acrocyanosis and chronic diarrhea associated with neurodevelopmental delay, psychomotor regression and hypotonia with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities.
Key facts
- Prevalence
- <1 / 1 000 000
- Age of onset
- Infancy, Neonatal
- Inheritance
- Autosomal recessive
- Classified as
- Disease
Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.
Signs and symptoms
Common30–79%
15- Abnormal basal ganglia MRI signal intensity
- Abnormality of extrapyramidal motor function
- Abnormal pyramidal sign
- Acrocyanosis
- Ataxia
- Developmental regression
- Diarrhea
- Failure to thrive
- Generalized hypotonia
- Intellectual disability
- Lactic acidosis
- Neurodevelopmental delay
- Petechiae
- Retinal vascular tortuosity
- Seizure
These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.
Gene
ICD-10 codes
ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.
Related health topics
Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.
Cross-references
Orphadata Science: Free access data from Orphanet. © INSERM 1999. Data version 2026-06-23. Available under CC BY 4.0. This is a reference, not medical advice.
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