Background: Early-onset parkinsonism can be caused by PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) gene defects and is usually characterized by an age of onset in the fourth decade of life, slow disease progression, resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, postural instability, and levodopa-induced dyskinesia.
Methods: We evaluated a child with early-onset symptoms and performed a literature review for previously reported examples of children aged 18 years or less with PINK1 gene defects.
Results: We describe a five-year-old boy with autosomal recessive early-onset parkinsonism caused by a homozygous missense mutation in the PINK1 gene. This is the youngest individual yet reported with early-onset parkinsonism.
Conclusion: PINK1-type of early-onset parkinsonism can occur in very young patients, and phenotypic expression of PINK1 mutations may depend on age of onset and ethnicity.
Keywords: Parkinson disease; dystonia; early-onset parkinsonism; movement disorders; parkinsonism; pink1.
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