Introduction
Citrullinemia type I, also known as arginosuccinate synthetase deficiency, is a rare disease caused by a deficiency in argininosuccinate synthetase, an enzyme involved in excreting excess nitrogen (known as urea cycle) from the body.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of CTLN1 in infants are caused by increasing levels of ammonia in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid and include excessive vomiting, anorexia, refusal to eat, irritability, increased intracranial pressure, and worsening lethargy, seizures, hypotonia, respiratory distress, hepatomegaly, and cerebral edema. These symptoms appear within days of birth in the more severe forms of the disease with complete deficiency of the enzyme.
Causes
Citrullinemia Type 1 is cause by mutations in ASS1 gene.
Prevalence
1:57’000