Mucolipidosis type IV: characteristic MRI findings.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to characterize the brain abnormalities on head MRI of patients with mucolipidosis type IV.

BACKGROUND

Mucolipidosis type IV is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease of unknown etiology. Patients develop corneal clouding, retinal degeneration, spastic quadriparesis, and mental retardation. Patients with this disorder have not been studied systematically.

METHODS

We studied prospectively 15 consecutive patients with mucolipidosis type IV using cranial MRI.

RESULTS

Fourteen patients with these typical clinical findings had a hypoplastic corpus callosum with absent rostrum and a dysplastic or absent splenium, signal abnormalities on T1-weighted head MRI images in the white matter, and increased ferritin deposition in the thalamus and basal ganglia. Atrophy of the cerebellum and cerebrum was observed in older patients, which may reflect disease progression. One patient with a mild clinical variant had a normal corpus callosum.

CONCLUSION

Patients with mucolipidosis type IV have characteristic cranial MRI findings that suggest that this disorder causes both developmental and neurodegenerative abnormalities.