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Blood is taken from a two-week-old baby to test for phenylketonuria PKU is commonly included in the newborn screening panel of many countries, with varied detection techniques. Most babies born in Europe, North America, and Australia are screened for PKU soon after birth.
Phenylketonuria (PKU) can result in severe hyperphenylalaninemia. [2] Phenylalanine concentrations are routinely screened in newborns by the neonatal heel prick (Guthrie test), which takes a few drops of blood from the heel of the infant.
The blood of a two-week-old infant is collected for a Phenylketonuria, or PKU, screening. The neonatal heel prick is a blood collection procedure done on newborns. It consists of making a pinprick puncture in one heel of the newborn to collect their blood. This technique is used frequently as the main way to collect blood from neonates.
Newborn screening programs initially used screening criteria based largely on criteria established by JMG Wilson and F. Jungner in 1968. [6] Although not specifically about newborn population screening programs, their publication, Principles and practice of screening for disease proposed ten criteria that screening programs should meet before being used as a public health measure.
Phenylketonurics often use blood tests to monitor the amount of phenylalanine in their blood. Lab results may report phenylalanine levels using either mg/dL and μmol/L. One mg/dL of phenylalanine is approximately equivalent to 60 μmol/L. A (rare) "variant form" of phenylketonuria called hyperphenylalaninemia is caused by the inability to ...
Untreated PKU results in irreversible neurological damage. [1] After the discovery of PKU as a cause of mental retardation, Horst Bickel and colleagues discovered that it could be treated successfully with a diet low in phenylalanine. [7] The main drawback in successful treatment of PKU was the delay in identifying affected individuals.
Today a screening blood test for PKU is done on newborns to detect the disease. With a special diet low in phenylalanine, PKU newborns can grow and develop into normal children and adults. Følling's work was too late to save Liv and Dag from severe progressive mental retardation (and in Dag's case, death) but it has saved thousands of children ...
Pegvaliase, sold under the brand name Palynziq, is a medication used for the treatment of the genetic disease phenylketonuria. [5] [9] [10] It is a phenylalanine (Phe)‑metabolizing enzyme. [5] Chemically, it is a pegylated derivative of the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia-lyase that metabolizes phenylalanine to reduce its blood levels. [5]