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A 70-year-old female presented with a three-year history of evolving macroglossia causing dysphagia and dysarthria, with proximal muscle weakness. Given the classic physical finding of macroglossia, the patient underwent extensive evaluation for amyloidosis which proved to be negative apart from a bone marrow biopsy which stained positive for transthyretin without amino acid sequence abnormality, thus giving wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis. Since the wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis could not entirely explain her clinical presentation and evaluation, further studies were conducted in a sequential manner, thus leading to a diagnosis of Pompe disease explaining her presenting signs and symptoms including her macroglossia. Through this fascinating case, we attempt to highlight the approach for the diagnoses of two rare diseases in a patient by emphasizing the importance of having a broad differential diagnosis when presented with findings which may have been thought as pathognomonic for certain diseases. The whole article you can read here.

There are only limited treatments currently available for Motor Neurone Disease, each with modest benefits. The New Zealand Motor Neurone Disease Registry was established in 2017 to facilitate participation in research and clinical trials, and to aid researchers in planning and recruitment. The NZ MND Registry collects demographic, contact and clinical data for those who choose to enroll. 12th July 2018, there were 142 participants enrolled in the NZ MND Registry. 85.5% of participants are diagnosed with sporadic MND and 6.1% with familial MND. The registry has facilitated entry of patients into three studies to date. The role of patient registries is an ever changing one, but with clear utility at every point of along the pathway to drug discovery. The whole article you can check here.

Enzyme replacement therapy is currently considered the standard of care for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) type I, II, VI, and IV. This approach has shown substantial efficacy mainly on somatic symptoms of the patients, but no benefit was found for other clinical manifestations, such as neurological involvement. New strategies are currently being tested to address these limitations, in particular to obtain sufficient therapeutic levels in the brain. Intrathecal delivery of recombinant enzymes or chimeric enzymes represent promising approaches in this respect. It is now clear that the clinical manifestations of MPS are not only the direct effects of storage, but also derive from a cascade of secondary events that lead to dysfunction of several cellular processes and pathways. Some of these pathways may represent novel therapeutic targets and allow for development of novel or adjunctive therapies for these disorders. The full article you can read here.

In 2012, the Spanish Rare Disease Registries Research Network (Spain-RDR) was consolidated with the aim of creating a Spanish population-based Rare Diseases Registry. In order to achieve this, each of the 17 Spanish Regions had to develop its own regional registry with a common agreed methodology. The Population-based Rare Disease Registry of Navarre was created in 2013 and, since then, its implementation is been carried out. Initially, the main data source used to capture cases was the Assisted Morbidity Registry of Navarre, which includes the Minimum Basic Data Set of every regional hospital discharges (both public and private). Afterwards, new data sources were been added and ongoing validation studies of captured cases were been developed. Due to the low prevalence of these diseases, a high false positives rate among the detected cases greatly affects the estimation of epidemiological indicators, which makes it necessary to validate the cases by verifying the diagnoses. More information about the registry you can find here.

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) comprise a group of lysosomal disorders that are characterized by progressive, systemic clinical manifestations and a coarse phenotype. The different types, having clinical, biochemical, and genetic heterogeneity, share key clinical features in varying combinations, including joint and skeletal dysplasia, coarse facial features, corneal clouding, inguinal or abdominal hernias, recurrent upper respiratory tract infections, heart valve disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, and variable neurological involvement. In the severe forms, these features usually appear in the first months of life, but a correct diagnosis is often reached later when suggestive signs are manifest. All MPS types may have severe or attenuated presentations depending on the residual enzymatic activity of the patient. Based on data from the literature and from personal experience, here we underline the very early signs of the severe forms which should alert the paediatrician on their first appearance. A few early signs are typical of MPS (i.e. gibbus) while many are unspecific (hernias, upper airway infections, organomegaly, etc.), and finding the association of many unspecific signs might prompt the paediatrician to search for a common cause and to carefully look for other more specific signs (gibbus and other skeletal deformities, heart murmur). We stress the need to increase awareness of MPS among paediatricians and other specialists to shorten the still existing diagnostic delay. A timely diagnosis is mandatory for the commencement of treatment as soon as possible, when available, to possibly obtain better results. The full article you can read here.