UC Irvine

Background

Recombinant human acid α-glucosidase (rhGAA) enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has prolonged survival in infantile Pompe disease (IPD), but has unmasked central nervous system (CNS) changes.

Methods

Brain imaging, consisting of computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was performed on 23 patients with IPD (17 CRIM-positive, 6 CRIM-negative) aged 2-38months. Most patients had baseline neuroimaging performed prior to the initiation of ERT. Follow-up neuroimaging was performed in eight.

Results

Sixteen patients (70%) had neuroimaging abnormalities consisting of ventricular enlargement (VE) and/or extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid accumulation (EACSF) at baseline, with delayed myelination in two. Follow-up neuroimaging (n=8) after 6-153months showed marked improvement, with normalization of VE and EACSF in seven patients. Two of three patients imaged after age 10years demonstrated white matter changes, with one noted to have a basilar artery aneurysm.

Conclusions

Mild abnormalities on brain imaging in untreated or newly treated patients with IPD tend to resolve with time, in conjunction with ERT. However, white matter changes are emerging as seen in Patients 1 and 3 which included abnormal periventricular white matter changes with subtle signal abnormalities in the basal ganglia and minimal, symmetric signal abnormalities involving the deep frontoparietal cerebral white matter, respectively. The role of neuroimaging as part of the clinical evaluation of IPD needs to be considered to assess for white matter changes and cerebral aneurysms.