Like many other genetic disorders that affect lipid metabolism, there are several forms of<unk> , which are late infantile, juvenile, and adult. * In the late infantile form, which is the most common form of<unk>  (50–60%), affected children begin having difficulty walking after the first year of life, usually at 15–24 months. Symptoms include muscle wasting and weakness, muscle rigidity, developmental delays, progressive loss of vision leading to blindness, convulsions, impaired swallowing, paralysis, and dementia. Children may become comatose. Untreated, most children with this form of<unk>  die by age 5, often much sooner. * Children with the juvenile form of<unk>  (onset between 3 and 10 years of age) usually begin with impaired school performance, mental deterioration, and dementia, then develop symptoms similar to the late infantile form but with slower progression. Age of death is variable, but normally within 10 to 15 years of symptom onset. Some patients can live for several decades after onset. A recent trend is to try to distinguish early-juvenile (ages 3–7) and late-juvenile forms of the disease. Generally early-juveniles have motor skill declines as their first symptoms while late-juveniles show cognitive declines first. * The adult form commonly begins after age 16 often with an onset in the 4th or 5th decade of life and presents as a psychiatric disorder or progressive dementia. Adult-onset<unk>  usually progresses more slowly than the late infantile and juvenile forms, with a protracted course of a decade or more. Palliative care can help with many of the symptoms and usually improves quality of life and longevity. Carriers have low enzyme levels compared to their family population ("normal" levels vary from family to family) but even low enzyme levels are adequate to process the body's sulfatide.
Metachromatic leukodystrophy
Multiple system atrophy
Leukodystrophy
Benign hereditary chorea
Stratton Parker syndrome
Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6
Infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy
Progressive supranuclear palsy