Alpers' syndrome presenting with seizures and multiple stroke-like episodes in a 17-year-old male

Alpers' syndrome is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with liver disease that usually presents in the first few years of life. Only rarely have patients presented later in life with delayed onset of Alpers' syndrome. Herein we present a case of a 17-year-old male with a progressive 8-month course of severe headaches, multiple stroke-like episodes with visual deficits, and seizures that concluded with acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis. Neuropathological findings were characteristic for Alpers' syndrome: neurodegeneration and astrogliosis of the occipital cortices including the striate cortices, similar but less advanced changes in the parietal cortices, right Ammons horn sclerosis, degeneration of the posterior columns, and mild cerebellar Purkinje cell loss. Examination of the liver revealed extensive centrilobular hepatocyte necrosis. Skeletal muscle did not contain ragged red fibers, nor were there mitochondrial DNA point mutations characteristic for mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS).