Adult cognitive outcomes in phenylketonuria:explaining causes of variability beyond average Phe levels

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to deepen the understanding of the causes of individual variability in phenylketonuria (PKU) by investigating which metabolic variables are most important for predicting cognitive outcomes (Phe average vs Phe variation) and by assessing the risk of cognitive impairment associated with adopting a more relaxed approach to the diet than is currently recommended. METHOD: We analysed associations between metabolic and cognitive measures in a mixed sample of English and Italian early-treated adults with PKU (N = 56). Metabolic measures were collected through childhood, adolescence and adulthood; cognitive measures were collected in adulthood. Metabolic measures included average Phe levels (average of median values for each year in a given period) and average Phe variations (average yearly standard deviations). Cognition was measured with IQ and a battery of cognitive tasks. RESULTS: Phe variation was as important, if not more important, than Phe average in predicting adult outcomes and contributed independently. Phe variation was particularly detrimental in childhood. Together, childhood Phe variation and adult Phe average predicted around 40% of the variation in cognitive scores. Poor cognitive scores (> 1 SD from controls) occurred almost exclusively in individuals with poor metabolic control and the risk of poor scores was about 30% higher in individuals with Phe values exceeding recommended thresholds. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide support for current European guidelines (average Phe value = < 360 μmol/l in childhood; = < 600 μmo/l from 12 years onwards), but they suggest an additional recommendation to maintain stable levels (possibly Phe SD = < 180 μmol/l throughout life). PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTS: We investigated the relationship between how well people with phenylketonuria control blood Phe throughout their life and their ability to carry out cognitive tasks in adulthood. We found that avoiding blood Phe peaks was as important if not more important that maintaining average low Phe levels. This was particularly essential in childhood. We also found that blood Phe levels above recommended European guidelines was associated with around 30% increase in the risk of poor cognitive outcomes.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-019-1225-z
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Clinical and Systems Neuroscience
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Vision, Hearing and Language
College of Health & Life Sciences
Additional Information: © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Funding: The original cohort of English patients was supported by a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme granted to Liana Palermo under the supervision of Cristina Romani and by a grant of the University Hospital Birmingham Charity to Tarekegn Gerberhiwot.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Phe associations,Phe fluctuations,Phe variations,PKU cognitive outcomes,PKU guidelines,Genetics(clinical),Pharmacology (medical)
Last Modified: 30 Sep 2024 12:17
Date Deposited: 16 Dec 2019 08:59
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
https://ojrd.bi ... 3023-019-1225-z (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2019-11-28
Accepted Date: 2019-10-09
Authors: Romani, Cristina (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5693-4131)
Manti, Filippo
Nardecchia, Francesca
Valentini, Federica
Fallarino, Nicoletta
Carducci, Claudia
De Leo, Sabrina
MacDonald, Anita
Palermo, Liana
Leuzzi, Vincenzo

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