A familial spastic paralysis of the extremities occurring in infants and young children in which seizures, blindness, and deafness develop during the first year of life, accompanied by progressive destruction and degeneration of neurons of the cerebral cortex. Also called Alpers' disease, Christensen-Krabbe disease.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.