Barth syndrome is characterized in affected males by cardiomyopathy, neutropenia, skeletal myopathy, prepubertal growth delay, and distinctive facial gestalt (most evident in infancy); not all features may be present in a given affected male. Cardiomyopathy, which is almost always present before age five years, is typically dilated cardiomyopathy with or without endocardial fibroelastosis or left ventricular noncompaction; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can also occur. Heart failure is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality; risk of arrhythmia and sudden death is increased. Neutropenia is most often associated with mouth ulcers, pneumonia, and sepsis. The nonprogressive myopathy predominantly affects the proximal muscles, and results in early motor delays. Prepubertal growth delay is followed by a postpubertal growth spurt with remarkable "catch-up" growth. Heterozygous females who have a normal karyotype are asymptomatic and have normal biochemical studies.

HSD10 mitochondrial disease (HSD10MD) most commonly presents as an X-linked neurodegenerative disorder with highly variable severity and age at onset ranging from the neonatal period to early childhood. The features are usually multisystemic, consistent with mitochondrial dysfunction. Some affected males have a severe infantile form associated with cardiomyopathy that may result in death in early childhood, whereas other rare patients may have juvenile onset or even atypical presentations with normal neurologic development. More severely affected males show developmental regression in infancy or early childhood, often associated with early-onset intractable seizures, progressive choreoathetosis and spastic tetraplegia, optic atrophy or retinal degeneration resulting in visual loss, and mental retardation. Heterozygous females may show non-progressive developmental delay and intellectual disability, but may also be clinically normal. Although the diagnosis can be aided by the observation of increased urinary levels of metabolites of isoleucine breakdown (2-methyl-3 hydroxybutyrate and tiglylglycine), there is not a correlation between these laboratory features and the phenotype. In addition, patients do not develop severe metabolic crises in the neonatal period as observed in other organic acidurias, but may show persistent lactic acidosis, most likely reflecting mitochondrial dysfunction (summary by Rauschenberger et al., 2010; Zschocke, 2012). In a review of this disorder, Zschocke (2012) noted that although it was originally thought to be an inborn error of branched-chain fatty acid and isoleucine metabolism resulting from decreased HSD17B10 dehydrogenase activity (HSD17B10 'deficiency'), subsequent studies have shown that the HSD17B10 gene product has additional functions and also acts as a component of the mitochondrial RNase P holoenzyme, which is involved in mitochondrial tRNA processing and maturation and ultimately mitochondrial protein synthesis. The multisystemic features of HSD10MD most likely result from the adverse effect of HSD17B10 mutations on mitochondrial function, rather than from the effects on the dehydrogenase activity (see PATHOGENESIS).