FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILD WITH JUVENILE NEURONAL CEROID-LIPOFUSCINOSIS

The neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses are among the most common forms of progressive neurodegenerative disease of childhood. They appear to be panethnic, but there is a special predilection of the infantile subtyp e in Finland, In the United States, the Batten disease registry of 731 cases shows that juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) is th e most common form. Here, we report on the first known African-America n child with JNCL. Genetic study showed the 1.02-kb deletion typically seen in JNCL cases. Am. J. Med. Genet. 79:335-336, 1998, (C) 1998 Wil ey-Liss, Inc.