Talk:Glycine Encephalopathy (Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia)

Requesting help: Reverted page title back to "Glycine Encephalopathy", but can't disable the Redirect from "D-glyceric Acidemia"
The original title of this page ("Glycine Encephalopathy") was correct, but it was later changed to "D-Glyceric Acidemia", on the basis that this was a "more common name" for Glycine Encephalopathy (NKH). This is not correct. These are two completely different disorders

I have re-named the page "Glycine Encephalopathy (Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia)". This has fixed one problem but created another. The page is still linked to "D-Glyceric Acidmia". When you search for "D-Glyceric Acidmia" you are redirected to "Glycine Encephalopathy (Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia)". How do I stop this redirecting from "D-Glyceric Acidmia" to "Glycine Encephalopathy (Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia)"? As far as I can tell, there is no actual article for "D-Glyceric Acidmia", but maybe it's stuck in a 'redirect loop' (is that possible?).

D-Glyceric Acidemia is a completely different disorder from glycine encephalopathy. D-Glyceric Acidemia is caused by a defect in d-glycerate kinase, an enzyme involved in the pathway for breakdown of L-Serine to pyruvate, with D-glyceric acid as an intermidiate in the pathway.

Glycine Encephalopathy (a.k.a Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia) is the correct title for this page. This disorder, as described in the article, is caused by a defect in the Glycine Cleavage System. The glycine cleavage system is a 4-protein complex that enzymatically breaks down Glycine, with the final products being ammonia, carbon dioxide, and 5,10-methyltetrahydrofolate.

The confusion may have arisen because the website "DiseaseDB", which was referenced in this article, also includes the erroneous information stating that D-Glyceric Acidemia is another name for Glycine Dncephalopathy. (This, too, is very frustrating, and I will look into having this corrected if possible). I therefore deleted this link to DiseaseDB in the article, and included a corrected link to OMIM.

(Side Note: D-glyceric acidemia can cause elevated glycine in the absense of ketosis (nonketotic hyperglycinemia) in severe cases, but this is secondary to the primary cause of the disease and is not related to the primary enzyme defect. In the case of d-glyceric acidemia, the term "nonketotic hyperglycinemia" may be used as a descriptive term for the lab values for glycine and ketones that may sometimes be observed in affected patients.  However, the primary abnormality seen in patients with d-glyceric acidemia is elevated d-glyceric acid in plasma and urine.)

As a biochemical geneticist, I have actually diagnosed patients with nonketotic hyperglycinemia as well as patients with d-glyceric acidemia, and I can assure you they are Not the same disorder. I am concerned that anyone may get the wrong information about these disorders, particularly if they are looking for this information because their child has been diagnosed with one of these disorders.

Thanks.

Beth Rogers (talk) 01:02, 17 November 2010 (UTC)Beth Rogers

Nevermind... Found solution regarding: Reverted page title back to "Glycine Encephalopathy", but can't disable the Redirect from "D-glyceric Acidemia"
I decided to go ahead and make an actual (albeit short) article for D-glyceric acidemia, and this seems to have fixed the redirect problems. And as a bonus, I learned a few more things about D-glyceric acidemia that I needed to learn anyway. :)

thanks

Beth Rogers (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:29, 17 November 2010 (UTC).

Clarifications
"Glycine Encephalopathy" vs. "Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia":  Actually, both of these terms are still in use, at least in my experience. So I think it's better to just say both terms are in use, and suggest that Glycine Encephalopathy is more descriptive of the clinical picture. In my experience the laboratory geneticists seem to use the term "Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia"/"NKH" more often (perhaps because this is how we detect the disease in lab tests -- elevated plasma glycine, absence of ketones on urine organic acid analysis, and characteristically elevated CSF-glycine to plasma-glycine ratio). Clinical geneticists (the MD's) seem to use "glycine encephalopathy" a bit more, maybe because the first thing they see is the patient presenting with encephalopathy and the related symptoms. But the clinical geneticists are pretty accustomed to the term NKH.

Regarding the "ketotic hyperglycinemias": A few other disorders can present with elevated glycine, in the presence of elevated ketones. So I think it's less confusing to simply say "propionic aciduria and other disorders". Propionic aciduria/acidemia is definitely a ketotic hyperglycinemia, but there are a few others (e.g. methylmalonic aciduria). At one time, propionic aciduria was given the name "Ketotic Hyperglycinemia" but I don't know if anyone still uses that name.

Referring to MSUD as an organic acid disorder: These days I generally hear MSUD referred to as a disorder of amino acid metabolism, although it can still be classified as an organic aciduria. Maybe it's less confusing to not declare it as either class of disorders, for the purpose of this article. I noticed that GeneReviews included it in their review of the Organic Acidrias, but I generally hear it referred to as a disorder of branched-chain amino acid metabolism (the primary defect is in breakdown of leucine/isoleucine/valine, the branched-chain amino acids). These days the diagnosis is made almost exclusively via amino acid analysis (dramatically elevated Leucine, abnormal Ile:Lue:Val ratio, and presence of diagnostic amino acid alloisoleucine). This is especially true since the addition of Leucine to newborn screening panels. Maybe that explains the trend away from calling it an organic aciduria. Still, characteristic/diagnostic (unique to MSUD) organic acids do show up on urine organic acid analysis in MSUD patients (similar to PKU, which displays its own set of diagnostic organic acids).

P.S. I'm sorry I just CAN'T seem to figure out how to work the References table. I read the Wiki help article but couldn't decipher the instructions. Any feedback/instructions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Beth Rogers (talk) 00:49, 18 November 2010 (UTC)Beth Rogers