Skip to main content
Download PDF

High blood pressure, a red flag for the neonatal manifestation of urea cycle disorders

Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases volume 14, Article number: 80 (2019) Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Neonatal manifestation of life-threatening hyperammonemic encephalopathy in urea cycle disorders (UCD) is often misdiagnosed as neonatal sepsis, resulting in significantly delayed start of specific treatment and poor outcome. The major aim of this study was to identify specific initial symptoms or signs to clinically distinguish hyperammonemic encephalopathy in neonates from neonatal sepsis in order to identify affected individuals with UCD and to start metabolic therapy without delay. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of diagnostic delay, peak plasma ammonium (NH4+) concentration, mode of emergency treatment and transfer to a tertiary referral center on the outcome.

Methods

Detailed information of 17 patients (born between 1994 and 2012) with confirmed diagnosis of UCD and neonatal hyperammonemic encephalopathy were collected from the original medical records.

Results

The initially suspected diagnosis was neonatal sepsis in all patients, but was not confirmed in any of them. Unlike neonatal sepsis and not previously reported blood pressure increased above the 95th percentile in 13 (81%) of UCD patients before emergency treatment was started. Respiratory alkalosis was found in 11 (65%) of UCD patients, and in 14 (81%) plasma NH4+concentrations further increased despite initiation of metabolic therapy.

Conclusion

Detection of high blood pressure could be a valuable parameter for distinguishing neonatal sepsis from neonatal manifestation of UCD. Since high blood pressure is not typical for neonatal sepsis, other reasons such as encephalopathy and especially hyperammonemic encephalopathy (caused by e.g. UCD) should be searched for immediately. However, our result that the majority of newborns with UCD initially present with high blood pressure has to be evaluated in larger patient cohorts.

Background

The physiologic function of the urea cycle is the irreversible fixation of ammonium (NH4+) to form water-soluble urea and thus to clear excess nitrogen produced by protein catabolism. Deficiency in one of the six enzymes or two transporters of the urea cycle impairs ureagenesis. The majority of these diseases results in hyperammonemia leading to rapidly progressing encephalopathy with severe neurologic sequelae or even death. Patients with the most severe neonatal manifestation present with first symptoms after a short symptom-free interval ranging from a few hours to days, while individuals with attenuated late disease onset may present at any age after the newborn period. The overall prevalence of urea cycle disorders (UCD) has been estimated to be approximately 1 in 35,000 for the United States [1] and 1 in 52,000 live births in Germany, Austria and Switzerland [2]. At least half of them present during the newborn period.

Newborns with UCD initially present with nonspecific symptoms such as vomiting, feeding refusal, irritability, lethargy, respiratory problems and seizures [3,4,5]. Further progress leads to apnea, cerebral edema and death. Emergency care, stabilization of the neonate during acute illness and immediate start of NH4+detoxification are indispensable for survival and for the prevention of irreversible brain damage. The clinical phenotype is often mistaken as neonatal sepsis. Since hyperammonemic encephalopathy of UCD patients shares clinical overlap with other diseases becoming manifest in the newborn period, particularly neonatal sepsis, and hence cannot be reliably identified clinically, diagnosis and start of specific emergency therapy is often delayed.

The aim of this study was to identify clinical parameters that help to distinguish between hyperammonemic encephalopathy and neonatal sepsis and reduce diagnostic and therapeutic delay. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of diagnostic delay, peak plasma ammonium (NH4+) concentration, mode of emergency treatment and transfer to a tertiary referral center on the outcome.

Methods

Seventeen patients, born between 1994 and 2012, with confirmed inherited deficiency of argininosuccinate lyase (ASL; MIM #207900), argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1; MIM #215700), carbamylphosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1; MIM #237300) or ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC; MIM #311250) and neonatal hyperammonemic encephalopathy were included. Sixteen of them were transferred to our center for emergency treatment. Information on pregnancy and delivery, onset of symptoms, diagnostic investigations, treatment protocols and outcome were collected from the original medical records of the transferring hospitals and our center.

IBM SPSS 20 for Windows (SPSS INC., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analyses. Unless stated otherwise, continuous variables are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) and range. The reference values for the age-appropriated 95th percentile of systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure (MAD) in newborns in the first days of life were based on the values collected by Kent et al. [6, 7]. Differences between groups were tested by Student’s t test or, if normality failed, with Kruskal–Wallis or Mann-Whitney U rank-sum test. P values < 0.05 were regarded as statistically significant in a explorative sense.

The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in 2013 after approval by the ethics committee of the University of Heidelberg, Germany (S-416/2011).

Results

Study population

Two patients (one female, one male) with CPS1 deficiency, six (all male) with OTC deficiency, seven (three female, four male) with ASS1 deficiency and two (one female, one male) with ASL deficiency were included in this study. All patients except patient #15 (ASS1 deficiency), who was identified by newborn screening, were diagnosed after the manifestation of symptoms during the newborn period.

Obstetric history and birth

All patients were term newborns, except for patient #6 who was delivered at a gestational age of 36 weeks. Mean gestational age was 39 weeks (SD = 1.5 weeks; range 36 to 41 weeks) and the mean birth weight was 3240 g (SD = 397 g; range 2685 g to 4075 g). Mean APGAR scores were 8.7 (SD = 0.8) at 1 min, 9.9 at 5 (SD = 0.3) and at 10 min (SD = 0.2). Patients were born by vaginal delivery (n = 12) or caesarian section (n = 5; one primary and four secondary cesarean section).

Clinical presentation and diagnosis

Table 1 summarizes initial signs and symptoms of the 17 patients. Mean onset of symptoms was at the 4th day of life (SD = 1.7 days; range 2–9 days). Affected newborns most commonly presented with respiratory distress, muscular hypotonia, and lethargy. Seizures were recognized in one patient before admittance. Interestingly, 13 of 16 patients (81%) presented with increased blood pressure above the 95th percentile before the start of emergency treatment, most of them being lethargic and severely compromised (Fig. 1). Mean systolic, diastolic and MAD pressure was 95 mmHg, 62.5 mmHg, 76 mmHg (SD = 15.3, 13.7, 13.1; range 71–121 mmHg, 50–88 mmHg, 58–98 mmHg). Of note, none of the patients received additional intravenous fluid applications including antibiotic therapy before blood pressure measurements. In the 3 newborns with initial normal blood pressure values, the blood pressure remained at the level and did not increase secondary. Even 3 h after admission to the transferring hospital, 9 of the 13 children with elevated initial blood pressure continued to have elevated blood pressure. Of the remaining four, no blood pressure was documented in three patients at that time and one newborn (#1) was already intubated. Mean systolic, diastolic and MAD pressure was 100 mmHg, 71 mmHg, 86 mmHg (SD = 8.15, 12.7, 10.9; range 89–111 mmHg, 60–94 mmHg, 70–98 mmHg), respectively. Most children experienced a drop in blood pressure with intubation and associated sedation. Looking at the blood pressure in the individual disease groups, an increase from CPS1 via OTC, ASS to ASL was observed for systolic, diastolic and MAD pressure (Table 2). However, there was no significant difference between systolic (p = 0.4) and MAD pressure (p = 0.21) for each individual disease. Only with diastolic pressure a significance (p = 0.038) was detected between CPS1 and ASL. In one patient, initial blood pressure was not reported. In all patients, neonatal sepsis was initially suspected, but was not confirmed in any. With the exception of patient (#1), who was immediately intubated in the referring clinic, none of the newborns initially received a volume bolus.

Table 1 Initial clinical presentation and metabolic derangement of neonatal UCD patients
Full size table
Fig. 1
figure 1

Initial systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure of the newborns with the respective 95th percentile. Legend: ▲systolic blood pressure; ■ mean aterial blood pressure; ● diastolic blood pressure

Full size image
Table 2 Mean blood pressure, mean initial ammonium level in transferring hospital and at admittance to NICU subdivided by UCD enzyme deficiency
Full size table

In the initial work-up, all patients received cranial ultrasound, 14 of them echocardiography and eight abdominal ultrasound. Thorathic X-rays were performed in 13 patients, while eight patients received a lumbar puncture during the work-up of neonatal sepsis. Twelve received intubation and mechanical ventilation due to respiratory distress. One newborn (#1) was intubated immediately after admission to the transferring hospital. The other eleven were intubated before the transfer to our center. Two patients required catecholamines after intubation and eight of them a central venous catheter.

Laboratory tests focusing on parameters of neonatal sepsis (blood count and c-reactive protein (CRP)) were obtained within two hours. Twelve patients received antibiotics immediately after initial blood samples were taken at the transferring pediatric hospital. The antibiotic therapy varied according to the individual standard procedures. Six newborns received antibiotic triple therapy with ampicillin, cephalosporin plus an aminoglycoside. Three newborns obtained ampicillin and aminoglycoside, one received ampicillin plus cephalosporine, one got cephalosporine and glycopeptides and one received only cephalosporine. Blood gases (Table 1) were determined in all patients showing means for pH of 7.46 (SD = 0.1; range 7.17–7.55), base excess (BE) -2.4 (SD = 3.2; range − 9.1 - 2.9) and carbon dioxide (CO2) of 29.6 mmHg (SD = 13.6 mmHg; range 19.7–76.7 mmHg). In our population, respiratory alkalosis at initial presentation was present in 11 patients (65%). One patient (#1) with respiratory insufficiency and thus elevated CO2 (76.7 mmHg) was intubated immediately after admittance to the referring hospital. Plasma NH4+ concentrations were determined with a mean delay of 3 h after admission to a Pediatric Department (SD = 11.5 h; range 1–41 h; except for #15 who was identified by newborn screening). Mean initial NH4+ concentration was 735 μmol/l (SD = 897 μmol/l, range 232–4000 μmol/l). In all patients first therapeutic measures following suspicion of a UCD were transient stop of protein intake and intravenous application of glucose (15–20 g/kg/d, with or without insulin). Two patients (# 1 and #2) received no additional metabolic therapy until in-patient admission in our center. Five patients received intravenous application of only arginine hydrochloride (#7, #8, #10, #14, #18), one patient (#11) only intravenous sodium benzoate and nine patients both medications. Eight patients received L-carnitine.

Progress after transferal

Overall 16 UCD patients (except #15) from 14 different hospitals were transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of our center after a mean time interval of 1.1 days (SD = 1.1 days; range 0–4 days) following the start of symptoms. Although emergency therapy was started in the referring hospitals, mean plasma NH4+ concentrations further increased from 735 μmol/l (SD = 897 μmol/l; range 232–4000 μmol/l) to 1240 μmol/l (SD = 1171 μmol/l; range 136–4420 μmol/l) at arrival in our center and three patients required immediate intubation and mechanic ventilation due to respiratory insufficiency. Although intravenous emergency treatment with high glucose, arginine hydrochloride and sodium benzoate was intensified, plasma NH4+ concentrations increased further in five patients before extracorporeal detoxification was started. Mean maximum NH4+ concentration was 1537 μmol/l (SD = 1238 μmol/l; range 385–4420 μmol/l). Looking at NH4+ concentrations in the individual disease groups there was no significant difference between mean initial NH4+ concentrations (p = 0.68) and on admittance at NICU (p = 0.74) (Table 2).

Extracorporeal detoxification with hemodialysis/hemofiltration via central venous Shaldon catheter was performed in 15 UCD patients. Mean time interval between admission to our center and start of hemodialysis/hemofiltration was 3.3 h (SD = 1.4 h, range 0.4–5.5. h). A mean duration of 24.8 h (SD 10.4 h, range 4–41 h) was required to reduce plasma NH4+ concentrations to below 150 μmol/l. Hemodialysis/hemofiltration was continued for a mean of 23.5 h (SD = 14.8 h; range 1.5–52 h). In six patients, plasma NH4+ concentrations increased again after discontinuation of extracorporeal detoxification. In one patient, hemodialysis/hemofiltration had to be started a second time.

Hypothermia was started in five patients. In analogy to standard protocols for hypothermia treatment in asphyxiated newborns, patients were cooled to 33.5 °C for 72 h using Hico Variotherm 550 (Hirtz). No severe side effects like coagulopathy were observed during hypothermia. After 72 h body temperature was increased by 0.5 °C per hour until a body temperature of 37 °C was reached.

During NICU management three patients required resuscitation. Two patients developed a hypovolemic shock, one (#14) after bleeding from the umbilical vein five days after insertion of the Shaldon catheter, and one (#16) due to high fluid removal during hemodialysis. In the course of resuscitation the latter patient developed a pneumothorax. The third patient (#1) had cardiac arrest following an episode of supraventricular tachycardia.

In patients #5, 7 and 8, therapy was discontinued in the next days to come in agreement with their parents due to an extremely low protein tolerance which was much below minimal requirements for dietary treatment. All of them had severe brain damage which was also confirmed by MRI. They died 7.1 h (mean; SD = 7.1; range 2.25–16.5) after discontinuation of intensive care and metabolic therapy.

Eleven of the surviving patients have been regularly followed by our outpatient clinic until now (mean age: 12 years, SD =5.1 years; range 2.4–19.9). Apart from #3 and #9 all showed impairments of intellectual and motor functions. Both have in common that there was no further increase until the admission in our center, but even a halving of the initial NH4+ concentration. But all other values such as the time of the first NH4+ concentration, metabolic emergency therapy, need for ventilation or dialysis differ.

Discussion

Hyperammonemic encephalopathy in newborns with UCDs is a life-threatening metabolic emergency that requires immediate and targeted treatment to prevent irreversible brain damage and death. The diagnosis of UCDs is often delayed, since clinical presentation shows broad overlap with other neonatal emergencies, in particular neonatal sepsis. The major aim of this study is to better distinguish neonatal onset of UCDs from the more frequent neonatal sepsis. The clinical presentation of UCD patients in this study is in line with previous reports on neonatal onset of UCD patients [3,4,5]: Progressive respiratory distress, muscular hypotonia and lethargy were the most frequent clinical symptoms. Striking and not previously reported was the finding of high blood pressure during hyperammonemic encephalopathy, a finding clearly distinguishing between UCDs and neonatal sepsis. Blood pressure was determined by oscillometry. Even in pediatric population oscillometric and radial artery blood pressure are closely correlated with only a small error [8]. In contrast to preterm infants there is no correlation between blood pressure and birth weight, length or gestational age in term infants [6, 7, 9]. In our cohort except one all were term infants. As described above 13 out of 16 patients (81%) in our study had a blood pressure above the age-appropriate 95th percentile [6] at first contact with a pediatrician due to clinical worsening, with most neonates being lethargic and severely compromised. Therefore high blood pressure was not due to increased activity or additional fluid administration. Beside activity an alternative cause of neonatal hypertension is increased intracranial pressure due to cerebral edema [10]. The initial cranial ultrasound including Doppler and Power color Doppler examination, however, showed no evidence for an apparent brain edema on admittance. Alternatively, low plasma arginine concentrations, which are characteristic for urea cycle disorders, can also be a reason for arterial hypertension. Production of arginine is important for endogenous cellular production of nitric oxide (NO), a potent vasodilator [11]. Patients with UCD, except those with arginase 1 deficiency, have low arginine levels. In ASL deficiency impaired systemic NO production is thought to rely on disturbed formation of a complex including ASL and endothelial NO synthase among other components [12]. In a newborn receiving arginine for evaluation of pituitary function a drop of blood pressure was seen after infusion of arginine followed by re-rising after discontinuation [13]. Nelin et al. [14] showed that arginine infusion lowers blood pressure in normotensive infants. A few cases reported about children with ASL deficiency and arterial hypertension. Arterial hypertension was resolved with intravenous infusion of arginine [13, 15]. We aimed to test this hypothesis in our study population, however, plasma arginine concentrations were determined only in 5 of the 17 patients before starting metabolic emergency treatment which also includes arginine. In addition, we were able to show that the initial high blood pressure is not a one-off event, but initially persisted in newborns with UCD. For most of them, sedation and intubation led to a drop in blood pressure. Since in neonatal sepsis and other causes of severe disease systemic blood pressure is mostly reduced [16], elevated blood pressure, probably readily explained by the pathophysiology of UCD, may be an important indicator for UCD.

Blood gases are often the first quantitative data available in a very sick infant. Since respiratory alkalosis was present in 65% of patients at initial presentation, this finding should be considered as another indicator of UCDs in any rapidly deteriorating neonate [5, 17].

Three out of the 17 patients died in the course of their first crisis. All others stayed alive, and 11 patients are still followed regularly in our outpatient clinics (mean follow-up time 13.6 years, SD = 5.5 years). Only two of the 11 surviving patients (#3: peak plasma NH4+ concentrations: 590 μmol/l and #9: 385 μmol/l) are not cognitively disabled. Their favorable neurological outcome may be due to only moderate peak plasma NH4+ concentrations during the neonatal crisis. In addition to age at disease onset the initial peak plasma NH4+ concentration is an important predictor of the neurological outcome [18, 19]. In a cohort of 456 patients, Posset et al. [18] described an initial peak NH4+above 500 μmol/l to be associated with neurological impairment. In 88 patients with UCDs reported by Bachmann et al. [19] none of the patients with an initial NH4+ level above 300 μmol/l (first test result) or 480 μmol/l (peak) achieved a normal neurological outcome. This has been confirmed by other studies [20, 21]. In our population we noticed no significant differences of plasma NH4+ concentrations between specific UCDs, whereby number of patients was small. Early diagnosis and immediate start of metabolic therapy aiming to normalize plasma NH4+concentrations is the prerequisite to prevent irreversible brain damage [22]. Noteworthy, until extracorporeal detoxification was started, plasma NH4+ concentrations further increased in the majority of patients despite intensified intravenous therapy with sodium benzoate, arginine and high-dose glucose therapy in combination with insulin. This highlights that intravenous emergency treatment is often insufficient to lower plasma NH4+ concentrations rapidly and reliably and therefore hemodialysis has to be considered early. From this it can be concluded that a timely transport of every patient with hyperammonemic encephalopathy to a metabolic center which operates hemodialysis in neonates should be considered, planned and organized.

Five patients were treated with hypothermia in addition to pharmacologic and extracorporeal detoxification. This potentially neuroprotective intervention has been described in animal experiments and small clinical trials in hepatic encephalopathy. One of the protective effects of hypothermia may be the prevention of osmolyte depletion in the brain. In astrocytes, NH4+is reversibly fixed to glutamate forming. The NH4+/glutamine/brain swelling hypothesis of hepatic encephalopathy suggests that accumulation of glutamine causes astrocytes to swell [23]. Decreased NH4+ delivery to the brain when patients with acute liver failure were cooled was referred to by Jalan [24, 25]. Polderman [26] reported a reduction of the metabolic rate by 8% per degree Celsius. There is one study reporting first results about feasibility of therapeutic hypothermia in neonatal hyperammonemia due to UCD [27].

Conclusion

Unfortunately the diagnosis of UCDs is often delayed [28]. Therefore it is most important to further increase the awareness for UCDs as a differential diagnosis in acutely ill neonates. Until now respiratory alkalosis had been recognized as an easily detectable, but inconsistent initial finding of UCDs [29]. Our study confirms this previous observation and highlights for the first time that elevated blood pressure might be an even better indicator of UCDs in newborns and distinguishes it from more frequent neonatal sepsis. Blood gases, blood pressure and plasma NH4+ should be determined without delay in every sick neonate with suspected neonatal sepsis.

Abbreviations

ASL:

Argininosuccinate lyase deficiency

ASS1:

Argininosuccinate synthetase 1 deficiency

BE:

Base excess

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

CPS1:

Carbamylphosphate synthetase 1 deficiency

CRP:

C-reactive protein

e.g:

for example

g:

gram

MAD:

mean arterial blood pressure

mg:

milligram

MRI:

magnetic resonance imaging

n:

number

NH4 + :

ammonium

NICU:

Neonatal intensive care unit

NO:

Nitric oxide

OTC:

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency

SD:

Standard deviation

UCD:

urea cycle disorders

References

  1. Summar ML, Koelker S, Freedenberg D, et al. European registry and network for intoxication type metabolic diseases (E-IMD): the incidence of urea cycle disorders. Mol Genet Metab. 2013;110:179–80.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Nettesheim S, Kölker S, Karall D, Häberle J, Posset R, Hoffmann GF, Heinrich B, Gleich F, Garbade SF. Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pädiatrische Stoffwechselstörungen (APS); European registry and network for intoxication type metabolic diseases (E-IMD); Erhebungseinheit für Seltene Pädiatrische Erkrankungen in Deutschland (ESPED); Austrian metabolic group; Swiss Paediatric surveillance unit (SPSU). Incidence, disease onset and short-term outcome in urea cycle disorders -cross-border surveillance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2017;12:111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kölker S, Garcia-Cazorla A, Valayannopoulos V, Lund AM, Burlina AB, Sykut-Cegielska J, Wijburg FA, Teles EL, Zeman J, Dionisi-Vici C, Barić I, Karall D, Augoustides-Savvopoulou P, Aksglaede L, Arnoux JB, Avram P, Baumgartner MR, Blasco-Alonso J, Chabrol B, Chakrapani A, Chapman K, I Saladelafont EC, Couce ML, de Meirleir L, Dobbelaere D, Dvorakova V, Furlan F, Gleich F, Gradowska W, Grünewald S, Jalan A, Häberle J, Haege G, Lachmann R, Laemmle A, Langereis E, de Lonlay P, Martinelli D, Matsumoto S, Mühlhausen C, de Baulny HO, Ortez C, Peña-Quintana L, Ramadža DP, Rodrigues E, Scholl-Bürgi S, Sokal E, Staufner C, Summar ML, Thompson N, Vara R, Pinera IV, Walter JH, Williams M, Burgard P. The phenotypic spectrum of organic acidurias and urea cycle disorders. Part 1: the initial presentation. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2015;38:1041–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Gardeitchik T, Humphrey M, Nation J, et al. Early clinical manifestations and eating patterns in patients with urea cycle disorders. J Pediatr. 2012;161:328–32.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Maestri NE, Clissold D, Brusilow SW. Neonatal onset ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency: a retrospective analysis. J Pediatr. 1999;134:268–72.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kent AL, Kecskes Z, Shadbolt B, et al. Normative blood pressure data in the early neonatal period. Pediatr Nephrol. 2007;22:1335–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kent AL, Kecskes Z, Shadbolt B, et al. Blood pressure in the first year of life in healthy infants born at term. Pediatr Nephrol. 2007;22:1743–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Park MK, Menard SM. Accuracy of blood pressure measurement by the Dinamap monitor in infants and children. Pediatrics. 1987;79:907–14.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Pejovic B, Peco-Antic A, Marinkovic-Eric J. Blood pressure in non-critically ill preterm and full-term neonates. Pediatr Nephrol. 2007;22:249–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Dionne JM, Abitbol CL, Flynn JT. Hypertension in infancy: diagnosis, management and outcome. Pediatr Nephrol. 2012;27:17–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Palmer RM, Ashton DS, Moncada S. Vascular endothelial cells synthesize nitric oxide from L-arginine. Nature. 1988;333:664–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Erez A, Nagamani SC, Shchelochkov OA, et al. Requirement of argininosuccinate lyase for systemic nitric oxide production. Nat Med. 2011;17:1619–26.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Fakler CR, Kaftan HA, Nelin LD. Two cases suggesting a role for the L-arginine nitric oxide pathway in neonatal blood pressure regulation. Acta Paediatr. 1995;84:460–2.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Nelin LD, Hoffmann GM. L-arginine infusion lowers blood pressure in children. J Pediatr. 2001;139:747–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Brunetti-Pierri N, Erez A, Shchelochkov O, Craigen W, Lee B. Systemic hypertension in two patients with ASL deficiency: a result of nitric oxide deficiency? Mol Genet Metab. 2009;98:195–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Giesinger RE, McNamara PJ. Hemodynamic instability in the critically ill neonate: an approach to cardiovascular support based on disease pathophysiology. Semin Perinatol. 2016;40:174–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Nassogne MC, Héron B, Touati G, Rabier D, Saudubray JM. Urea cycle defects: management and outcome. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2005;28:407–14.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Posset R, Garcia-Cazorla A, Valayannopoulos V, Teles EL, Dionisi-Vici C, Brassier A, Burlina AB, Burgard P, Cortès-Saladelafont E, Dobbelaere D, Couce ML, Sykut-Cegielska J, Häberle J, Lund AM, Chakrapani A, Schiff M, Walter JH, Zeman J, Vara R, Kölker S. Additional individual contributors of the E-IMD consortium. Age at disease onset and peak ammonium level rather than interventional variables predict the neurological outcome in urea cycle disorders. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2016;39:661–72.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Bachmann C. Long-term outcome of patients with urea cycle disorders and the question of neonatal screening. Eur J Pediatr. 2003;162:Suppl 1:29–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Msall M, Batshaw ML, Suss R, et al. Neurologic outcome in children with inborn errors of urea synthesis. Outcome of urea-cycle enzymopathies. N Engl J Med. 1984;310:1500–5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Uchino T, Endo F, Matsuda I. Neurodevelopmental outcome of long-term therapy of urea cycle disorders in Japan. J Inherit Metab Dis. 1998;21(Suppl 1):151–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Bachmann C. Outcome and survival of 88 patients with urea cycle disorders: a retrospective evaluation. Eur J Pediatr. 2003;162:410–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Häussinger D, Kircheis G, Fischer R, et al. Hepatic encephalopathy in chronic liver disease: a clinical manifestation of astrocyte swelling and low-grade cerebral edema? J Hepatol. 2000;32:1035–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jalan R, Olde Damink SW, Deutz NE, et al. Moderate hypothermia in patients with acute liver failure and uncontrolled intracranial hypertension. Gastroenterology. 2004;127:1338–46.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Jalan R, O Damink SW, Deutz NE, et al. Moderate hypothermia for uncontrolled intracranial hypertension in acute liver failure. Lancet. 1999;354:1164–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Polderman KH. Mechanisms of action, physiological effects, and complications of hypothermia. Crit Care Med. 2009;37(Suppl 1):186–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Lichter-Konecki U, Nadkarni V, Moudgil A, et al. Feasibility of adjunct therapeutic hypothermia treatment for hyperammonemia and encephalopathy due to urea cycle disorders and organic acidemias. Mol Genet Metab. 2013;109:354–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Summar M, Tuchman M. Proceedings of a consensus conference for the management of patients with urea cycle disorders. J Pediatr. 2001;138(Suppl 1):6–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Kölker S, Garcia-Cazorla A, Vallayannopoulos V, et al. The phenotypic spectrum of organic acidurias and urea cycle disorders. Part 1: the initial presentation. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2015;38:1041–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all families, referring colleagues and hospitals.

Funding

No funding.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to data privacy reasons but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Division of Pediatric Neurology and Metabolic Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Ulrike Teufel, Peter Burgard, Jochen Meyburg, Georg F. Hoffmann & Stefan Kölker

  2. Department of General Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine and Neonatology, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Ulrike Teufel

  3. University Children’s Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Martin Lindner

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Clinic of Neonatology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Johannes Poeschl

  5. Department of Pediatrics, SLK-Kliniken Heilbronn GmbH, Heilbronn, Germany

    Peter Ruef

Authors
  1. Ulrike Teufel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter Burgard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jochen Meyburg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Martin Lindner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Johannes Poeschl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Peter Ruef
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Georg F. Hoffmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Stefan Kölker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

UT collected data, drafted the initial and wrote the final manuscript as submitted. PB undertook the statistical analysis and revised the final manuscript. JM managed ICU therapy and contributed to the final manuscript. ML managed metabolic ICU therapy and critically reviewed the final manuscript. JP designed the study and revised the final manuscript. GFH designed the study and critically reviewed and revised the final manuscript. SK managed metabolic ICU therapy, reviewed the manuscript and revised the final manuscript. PR supervised data collection, undertook the statistical analysis and revised the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrike Teufel.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Heidelberg, Germany (S-416/2011).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

UT reports non-financial support from MSD Sharp& Dome, non-financial support from AbbVie, outside the submitted work. PB reports lecture fees from Nutrica, vitaflo, Recordati, and Dr. Schär, and a grant from vitaflo. JM reports grants from Cytonet GmbH, Commercial Sponsor, during the conduct of the study. ML reports grants from Cytonet GmbH, Commercial Sponsor, during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Orphan Europe Nutricia, others, outside the submitted work. JP reports no competing interests. GFH reports grants from Cytonet GmbH, Commercial Sponsor, during the conduct of the study, grants from the Dietmar Hopp Foundation (St. Leon-Rot, Germany), as well as lecture fees from Sobi. PR reports no competing interests. SK reports grants from the European Commission (Chafea grant agreement no. 2010 12 01; for the project E-IMD), Dietmar Hopp Foundation (St. Leon-Rot, Germany), Kindness for Kids Foundation (Munich, Germany) and Horizon Pharma Ireland Limited (RRPE, study number HPZN-RAV-401).

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Teufel, U., Burgard, P., Meyburg, J. et al. High blood pressure, a red flag for the neonatal manifestation of urea cycle disorders. Orphanet J Rare Dis 14, 80 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-019-1055-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-019-1055-z

Keywords

Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases

ISSN: 1750-1172