Navajo neurohepatopathy

What it is

A rare, life-threatening, mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome disease characterized by severe, progressive sensorimotor neuropathy associated with corneal ulceration, scarring or anesthesia, acral mutilation, metabolic and immunologic derangement, and hepatopathy (which can manifest with fulminant hepatic failure, a Reye-like syndrome or indolent progression to liver cirrhosis, depending on clinical form involved), present in the Navajo Native American population. Clinical presentation includes failure to thrive, distal limb weakness with reduced sensation, limb contractures with loss of function, areflexia, recurrent metabolic acidosis with intercurrent illness, immunologic anomalies manifesting with severe systemic infections, and sexual infantilism.

Key facts

Prevalence

<1 / 1 000 000

Age of onset

Childhood, Infancy

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.

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