Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II (CPT II) deficiency is a disorder of long-chain fatty-acid oxidation. The three clinical presentations are lethal neonatal form, severe infantile hepatocardiomuscular form, and myopathic form (which is usually mild and can manifest from infancy to adulthood). While the former two are severe multisystemic diseases characterized by liver failure with hypoketotic hypoglycemia, cardiomyopathy, seizures, and early death, the latter is characterized by exercise-induced muscle pain and weakness, sometimes associated with myoglobinuria. The myopathic form of CPT II deficiency is the most common disorder of lipid metabolism affecting skeletal muscle and the most frequent cause of hereditary myoglobinuria. Males are more likely to be affected than females.

Neutral lipid storage disease with myopathy (NLSDM) is an autosomal recessive muscle disorder characterized by adult onset of slowly progressive proximal muscle weakness affecting the upper and lower limbs and associated with increased serum creatine kinase; distal muscle weakness may also occur. About half of patients develop cardiomyopathy later in the disease course. Other variable features include diabetes mellitus, hepatic steatosis, hypertriglyceridemia, and possibly sensorineural hearing loss. Leukocytes and muscle cells show cytoplasmic accumulation of triglycerides (summary by Reilich et al., 2011). Neutral lipid storage disease with myopathy belongs to a group of disorders termed neutral lipid storage disorders (NLSDs). These disorders are characterized by the presence of triglyceride-containing cytoplasmic droplets in leukocytes and in other tissues, including bone marrow, skin, and muscle. Chanarin-Dorfman syndrome (CDS; 275630) is defined as NLSD with ichthyosis (NLSDI). Patients with NLSDM present with myopathy but without ichthyosis (summary by Fischer et al., 2007).

Infantile mitochondrial myopathy due to reversible COX deficiency is a rare mitochondrial disorder characterized by onset in infancy of severe hypotonia and generalized muscle weakness associated with lactic acidosis, but is distinguished from other mitochondrial disorders in that affected individuals recover spontaneously after 1 year of age (summary by Mimaki et al., 2010). See also transient infantile liver failure (LFIT; 613070), which is a similar disorder.