Miyajima H, Sakamoto M, Oikawa T, Honjou H, Kanaoka S, Honda N
First Department of Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan.
Jpn J Med. 1990 Jan-Feb;29(1):95-8. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine1962.29.95.
A 65-year-old man with progressive muscle weakness and liver dysfunction following massive small bowel resection showed myriad lipid-filled vacuoles in type I muscle fibers. Carnitine was significantly decreased in muscle, serum and urine. Carnitine supplementation was followed by clinical improvement and decreased lipid droplets in biopsied muscle. He had been receiving carnitine-deficient total parenteral nutrition. This form of carnitine deficiency may be due to a defect in carnitine biosynthesis, as well as dietary carnitine deficiency.
