[Medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase defect. Acute cerebral episodes and nonketotic hypoglycemia in children].

A four-year-old and a three-year-old boy with somnolence, coma and hypoglycaemia were found to have a defect in the beta-oxidation of medium-chain fatty acids (medium-chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase [MCAD] defect). The brother of one of them had died aged 16 months of an acute disease resembling Reye's syndrome (coma, fatty liver, cerebral oedema). The other two boys have no symptoms now under daily treatment with 100 mg/kg carnitine and frequent carbohydrate-high, fat-poor meals. The MCAD defect is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained loss of consciousness in children with non-ketotic hypoglycaemia or with Reye's syndrome, as well as in families with sudden infant death.