Long-term treatment of Barth syndrome with pantothenic acid: a retrospective study.

We report on three patients (two are brothers) with confirmed Barth syndrome treated with pantothenic acid. This treatment is still controversial and only one study has reported positive results to date. In our patients, long-term treatment has failed to reduce the number of infectious episodes and prevent dilated cardiomyopathy. Our cases show that this treatment is not as effective in Barth syndrome as was previously claimed.