Early-onset liver disease complicated with acute liver failure in Alstrom syndrome.

We report a case of Alstrom syndrome with evidence of extensive hepatic disease diagnosed at five years of age, who subsequently developed acute liver failure and died at eight years of age. Such a case, with the patient dying before the age of ten, has not been described before. The biochemical findings during our patient's liver failure raised the question of a possible mitochondrial function defect in this syndrome. Further investigation of this possibility is needed. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.