Pearson syndrome

Pearson syndrome is a mitochondrial disease characterized by sideroblastic anemia and exocrine pancreas dysfunction. It is usually fatal in infancy. The few patients who survive into adulthood often develop symptoms of Kearns-Sayre syndrome. It is caused by a deletion in mitochondrial DNA. Pearson syndrome is very rare, less than hundred cases have been reported in medical literature worldwide.

The syndrome was first described by Pearson in 1979, the deletions causing it were discovered a decade later.