[Alpers' infantile cerebral poliodystrophy. A case with abnormal hepatic pyruvate carboxylase].

The authors describe an anatomical familial case of progressive infantile cerebral poliodystrophy (Alpers disease), in which the study of enzyme kinetics of hepatic pyruvate carboxylase revealed an abnormal graph reflecting a loss of activity of the enzyme with low concentrations of substrate, This is a new feature in the literature on Alpers disease, and possibly indicates one of the pathogenic mechanisms responsible in this disorder which remains mysterious, although its pathology has been clearly described.