The clinical features of argininemia in two cousins included hyperactivity, spasticity, ataxia, retardation, and repeated attacks of hyperammonemia. Study of a large kindred suggests that arginase-deficiency is transmitted as a Mendelian recessive. Treatment with an essential amino acid mixture with
A new French-Canadian family from the province of Quebec is reported, in which a male child was diagnosed as hyperargininaemic after showing positive tests for cystinuria on neonatal screening. The child has no residual activity of erythrocyte arginase, and a plasma arginine level of 633 mumol/l.