Aortic dissection and cystinosis: is there any relationship?

Adult complications of nephropathic cystinosis: a systematic review

While nephropathic cystinosis is classically thought of as a childhood disease, with improved treatments, patients are more commonly living into adulthood. We performed a systematic review of the literature available on what complications this population faces as it ages. Nearly every organ system is affected in cystinosis, either from the disease itself or from sequelae of kidney transplantation. While cysteamine is known to delay the onset of end-stage kidney disease, its effects on other complications of cystinosis are less well determined. More common adult-onset complications include myopathy, diabetes, and hypothyroidism. Some less common complications, such as neurologic dysfunction, can still have a profound impact on those with cystinosis. Areas for further research in this area include additional study of the impact of cysteamine on the nonrenal manifestations of cystinosis, as well as possible avenues for new and novel treatments.

Subtle cardiac dysfunction in nephropathic cystinosis: insight from tissue Doppler imaging and 2D speckle tracking echocardiography

BACKGROUND

Nephropathic cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder that initially affects the kidney progressing to multi-organ failure due to accumulation of cystine in all tissue compartments.

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this study is the evaluation of cardiac function in cystinosis patients using non-conventional echocardiographic modalities like pulsed wave tissue Doppler imaging (PW-TDI) and 2D speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE).

METHODS

This is a case control study conducted on fifteen patients with cystinosis and 15 normal controls. Echocardiography was done for all participants and PW-TDI was performed for measurement of S', E', A' velocities and myocardial performance index (MPI) at basal parts of septal, left ventricle (LV), and right ventricle (RV) free walls. 2D-STE was done for evaluation of global longitudinal strain (GLS), global circumferential strain (GCS), and global radial strain (GRS) of LV. Mitral E and A velocities and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) were also measured.

RESULTS

The GLS, GRS, and S' velocity at basal septum and LV lateral wall were significantly lower in patients denoting LV systolic dysfunction (p = 0.005, p < 0.0001, p = 0.001, p = 0.006, respectively), while E/E' were significantly higher in patients group denoting LV diastolic dysfunction (p < 0.001). For RV function, TAPSE, S', and E' velocity were significantly lower in patients group (p 0.013, p < 0.01, p = 0.05, respectively) indicating RV systolic and diastolic dysfunction. The TDI-derived MPI for both LV and RV were significantly higher in patients group (p < 0.0001, p < 0.01, respectively) indicating both ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. For prediction of cardiac dysfunction among patients, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that GRS ≤ 29% had sensitivity 93.3% and specificity 100%, GLS > - 20.1% had sensitivity 66.7% and specificity 93.3%, LV-E/E' >7.87 had sensitivity 73.3% and specificity 93.3%, and MPI-LV > 0.36 had sensitivity 100% and specificity 93.3% while MPI-RV > 0.29 had sensitivity 80% and specificity 93.3% and TAPSE ≤ 19 mm had sensitivity 80% and specificity 73.3%.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with cystinosis have significant both left and right ventricular dysfunction, which can be better evaluated using the non-conventional echocardiographic modalities like TDI and 2D-STE for early detection of subtle cardiac dysfunction.