Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia with ragged-red fibers: clinical, morphological and genetic investigations in 43 patients.

The evaluation of the severity of progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO) with ragged-red fibers in muscle, at the onset of the disease, when PEO is most often the only presenting symptom, is a difficult problem in neurological practice. In order to address that issue, we have performed a comparative analysis of the clinical, morphological and molecular characteristics of 43 patients affected with that form of ocular myopathy. Quantification of mitochondrial accumulation was performed with an image analysis application on muscle sections stained with succinate dehydrogenase histochemical reaction. The proportion of muscle fibres appearing as cytochrome c oxidase deficient was used as an index of the muscle-energy defect. Muscle mitochondrial DNA deletions were detected, localized and quantitated by Southern blot analysis. Point mutations were screened in five transfer RNA genes in the mtDNA (tRNA(Leucine (UUR)), tRNA(Lysine), tRNA(Glutamine), tRNA(Isoleucine) and tRNA(Formylmethionine)) by a denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis technique. This investigation confirmed the high frequency of mtDNA deletions or point mutations in PEO. At the onset of the disease, no clinical, morphological or molecular features could predict whether PEO would remain isolated or become part of a more severe multisystem disease. However, patients with mtDNA deletions were characterized by more severe ophthalmoplegia of earlier onset. Their muscle alterations were roughly parallel in severity to the proportion of deleted mtDNA molecules in muscle. Patients with a multitissular disease and mtDNA deletions were always sporadic cases and their clinical presentation was, most often, closely related to Kearns Sayre syndrome.