Ultrarare genetic diseases often appear with a series of symptoms that might seem unconnected.
Trinity's troubles began right away: GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) so severe that she would frequently stop breathing. The first sign that something complicated was going on began at five months. "She started having bruises all over her body. These later grew and then within a day or two, turned into huge hematomas," Brooke recalled. The baby could barely sleep or eat and Brooke and her mother took shifts in providing the round-the-clock care.
Then the pruritis started, an intense, unremitting itching emanating from deep within the skin. Brooke had to dress the child in special mittened onesies to keep her from tearing her skin off. In adults, pruritus leads to thoughts of suicide.
Fortunately, diagnosis was relatively fast for the rare disease world. Trinity's local pediatrician sent her to the emergency room at Anne Arundel Medical Center, where they found highly abnormal clotting levels, indicating a liver problem. Then she was referred to Johns Hopkins Medical Center and finally to Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Liver function tests, scans, liver biopsy, and extensive genetic testing, plus consideration of the little girl's symptoms, led to her diagnosis at 7 months old: progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 2 (PFIC2).
To keep reading go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.