Description

Classic galactosemia is a life-threatening metabolic disease with onset in the neonatal period. Infants usually develop feeding difficulties, lethargy, and severe liver disease. When ingesting breast milk or lactose-containing formula, infants develop feeding problems, failure to thrive, and signs of liver damage (jaundice, bleeding tendency, hypoglycemia). In the absence of appropriate treatment (galactose restriction), sepsis (E-coli) and neonatal death may occur. Classic galactosemia is caused by mutations in the GALT (9p13) gene encoding the galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase enzyme. Mutations that severely impair enzyme activity result in the classic galactosemia phenotype. The so-called variants are mutations associated with higher residual enzyme activity resulting in milder or no features of galactosemia such as the Duarte variant (GALT gene mutation).

External Information

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