Kinky Hair Syndrome: Serial Study of Radiological Findings with Emphasis on the Similarity to the Battered Child Syndrome

Two cases of Menkes' syndrome (kinky hair disease) were studied by serial radiologic examination of the extremities and by selected studies of the central nervous system. The findings of flared and fragmented metaphyses as signs of trauma and evidence of brain damage are similar to the findings in the infant abuse syndrome. Angiography demonstrated the vessels in the head, abdomen and extremities to be excessively tortuous. This sex-linked recessively transmitted metabolic disease is apparently due to copper deficiency.