An adult case of Andersen's disease--Type IV glycogenosis. A clinical, histochemical, ultrastructural and biochemical study.

A middle-aged man presented with a thirty-year history of progressive, asymmetrical limb-girdle weakness. The muscle biopsy revealed a vacuolar myopathy. The vacuoles which did not disrupt the fibre outline, lay in a subsarcolemmal position. They were PAS-positive and the material was partially resistant to diastase digestion. Electron microscopy showed the vacuoles to contain free unbound glycogen with filamentous material. Leucocyte brancher enzyme activity was normal but the muscle activity was less than half the control value. Histochemical and ultrastructural characteristics of the storage material resemble the amylopectin polysaccharide deposits seen in childhood Type IV glycogenosis.