Placental floor infarction complicating the pregnancy of a fetus with long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCHAD) deficiency

By postmortem biochemical and molecular genetic analyses, an 8-month-old in fant was diagnosed with long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase d eficiency, an inborn error of mitochondrial fatty acid beta -oxidation. He was born following a pregnancy complicated by a maternal floor infarction o f the placenta, a disorder of unknown etiology. We speculate that the child 's autosomal recessive fatty acid beta -oxidation disorder and the pregnanc y complication are causally related. (C) 2001 Academic Press.