Neonatal hemochromatosis is an uncommon disorder, clinicopathologically defined by severe and generally fatal liver disease of intrauterine onset associated with extrahepatic siderosis that spares reticuloendothelial elements (hemochromatotic siderosis).
Beginning as a fetal liver disease, it typically presents as liver failure in newborn infants that are often born prematurely and with intrauterine growth restriction caused by prenatal insult.
Many cases of NH are due to maternal alloimmunity directed at the fetal liver. The principal evidence suggesting an alloimmune mechanism comes from the observation that the risk of occurrence in a gestation subsequent to one ending in an affected baby is as high as 90%.
Etiology
fetal alloimmunization (15861012)
- maternal lupus antibodies
- maternal autoantibodies against Ro/SS-A and La/SS-B ribonucleoproteins (8213678)
fetal bacterial infections
fetal viral infections
- fetal CMV infections (1325409)
undefined familial condition with autosomal recessive inheritance, mitochondrial inheritance, or due to gonadal mosaicism
trisomy 21
- acute myeloproliferative disease
Associations
multiple malformations (8010353)
delta 4-3-oxosteroid 5 beta-reductase deficiency (8301429)
infectious diseases
- fetal CMV infection
- amnion infection syndrome
chromosomal anomalies
- trisomy 18
-
trisomy 21
- Down syndrome-associated neonatal transitory myelodysplasia (7669389)
cardiovascular anomalies
hematological anomalies
- Rhesus-incompatibility
- ABO-incompatibility
- congenital hemolysis
- anti-phospholipid syndrome
digestive anomalies
- duodenal atresia (7758532)
- meconial ileus (11700892)
- gastroschisis (18338135)
malformative syndromes or malformations
- Martinez-Frias syndrome (19887127)
- duodenal atresia (7758532)
miscellaneous
- renal tubular dysgenesis (19809376, 14677054, 9688768, 8066004)
- hypocalvaria (9688768)
- congenital generalized infantile myofibromatosis (11196755)
- hemophagocytic syndrome (10347280)
- neonatal hyperphenylalaninemia and renal tubulopathy (16182582)
Treatment
There is no effective treatment for neonatal hemochromatosis (NH).
Thus, treatment options are limited, and survival rates with medical therapy are generally recorded as being <20%.
Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) has been applied, but with substantial difficulty in this clinical scenario.
More effective medical therapy is clearly needed for newborns with this devastating disease.
Treatment of women at risk for having an affected baby with high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) reduces the occurrence of having a severely affected baby. This proof of concept that therapy directed at the immune mechanism of NH can prevent the disease in utero led to the hypothesis that the same approach could alter the course of already established disease postnatally.
Case records
See also
acute hepatic failure
Reviews
Whitington PF, Malladi P. Neonatal hemochromatosis: is it an alloimmune disease? J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2005 May;40(5):544-9. PMID: 15861012
Goyal R, Pattari SK, Kakkar N, Radotra BD, Narang A. Neonatal hemochromatosis with massive hepatic necrosis. Fetal Pediatr Pathol. 2004 Sep-Dec;23(5-6):345-50. PMID: 16137172
Knisely AS, Mieli-Vergani G, Whitington PF. Neonatal hemochromatosis. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2003 Sep;32(3):877-89, vi-vii. PMID: 14562579
Murray KF, Kowdley KV. Neonatal hemochromatosis. Pediatrics. 2001 Oct;108(4):960-4. PMID: 11581451
Kershisnik MM, Knisely AS, Sun CC, Andrews JM, Wittwer CT. Cytomegalovirus infection, fetal liver disease, and neonatal hemochromatosis. Hum Pathol. 1992 Sep;23(9):1075-80. PMID: 1325409
Ruchelli ED, Uri A, Dimmick JE, Bove KE, Huff DS, Duncan LM, Jennings JB, Witzleben CL. Severe perinatal liver disease and Down syndrome: an apparent relationship. Hum Pathol. 1991 Dec;22(12):1274-80. PMID: 1836197
Witzleben CL, Uri A. Perinatal hemochromatosis: entity or end result? Hum Pathol. 1989 Apr;20(4):335-40. PMID: 2467869
A.S. Knisely, G. Mieli-Vergani and P.F. Whitington, Neonatal hemochromatosis, Gastroenterol Clin North Am 32 (2003), pp. 877–889.
K.F. Murray and K.V. Kowdley, Neonatal hemochromatosis, Pediatrics 108 (2001), pp. 960–964.
P.F. Whitington, Fetal and infantile hemochromatosis, Hepatology 43 (2006), pp. 654–660.
D.M. Flynn, N. Mohan, P. McKiernan, S. Beath, J. Buckels and D. Mayer et al., Progress in treatment and outcome for children with neonatal haemochromatosis, Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 88 (2003), pp. F124–F127.
References
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Relationship of Proximal Renal Tubular Dysgenesis and Fetal Liver Injury in Neonatal Hemochromatosis. Bonilla SF, Melin-Aldana H, Whitington PF. Pediatr Res. 2009 Oct 5. PMID: 19809376
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