Significance of muscle biopsies in neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses.

Muscle specimens obtained at necropsy from four cases of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis (NCL), three of the juvenile and one of the late infantile type, and a muscle biopsy from a fifth patient with the juvenile type of NCL, all showed curvilinear bodies typical of NCL within the muscle fibres. The pigments were autofluorescent. It appears that skeletal muscle is a reliable tissue source for the diagnosis of these disorders by biopsy.