beta-Mannosidase deficiency was demonstrated in fibroblasts of a girl who showed severe psychomotor retardation, bone deformities and gargoylism and recurrent skin and respiratory infections and who died at 20 years of age from bronchopneumonia. This first demonstration of a female patient confirms the autosomal recessive inheritance of beta-mannosidosis. Further investigation of this gypsy family revealed beta-mannosidosis in an older brother with a milder manifestation of gargoyl facial dysmorphology, mental retardation, hearing impairment and recurrent infections. beta-Mannosidase activity was completely deficient in his cultured skin fibroblasts, leukocytes and plasma. In urine a characteristic disaccharide was present. Heterozygote levels of beta-mannosidase were found in fibroblasts and/or plasma of the parents and one sister.

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In a patient with methylmalonic acidaemia (MMAA), persistent neurological symptoms were observed in addition to the acute episodes of metabolic dysequilibrium. CT scan and magnetic resonance imaging revealed bilateral symmetrical necrosis of the globus pallidus. Different episodes of metabolic decompensation, one with severe acidosis, had occurred. Persistent neurological symptoms in patients with MMAA who are appropriately treated suggest irreversible brain damage which appears to occur preferentially at the level of the basal ganglia.