Forty children (23 boys, 17 girls) with centrotemporal spikes (rolandic focus) with and without seizures (mean age 8.4 years ±4.8 SD), and 40 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status were assessed for their neuropsychological, intellectual, and behavioral outcome. Compared with the controls, patients were significantly impaired in their IQ, visual perception, short‐term memory, in their psychiatric status and in some subtests in a fine motor performance task. No significant differences could be computed for a simple finger‐motor speed exercise or a linguistic performance test. In patients, deficits in IQ were significantly correlated with frequency of spikes in the EEG, but not with frequency of seizures, lateralization of the rolandic focus, or time since rolandic focus was diagnosed. It was concluded that a rolandic focus is not as benign as once thought.

In order to further clarify the pathogenesis and clinical significance of MRI white matter abnormalities in treated hyperphenylalaninaemia (HPA), ten patients (seven type I HPA, two type II and one type III) underwent T2 relaxometry (n = 8) and/or 1H spectroscopy (n = 7) in addition to conventional MR spin-echo imaging at 1.5 T. Two patients with severe MRI abnormalities had repeat examinations during and after a 6- to 8-month period of strict diet control. The clinical evaluation included a detailed neurological examination. In nine out of ten patients visual evoked potentials (VEP) were obtained parallel to the MR examination. MR imaging demonstrated typical symmetrical areas of prolonged T2 relaxation time predominantly in the posterior periventricular white matter in all but one of type I and II patients. There was no consistent relationship between MRI findings and time of diagnosis/initiation of therapy, IQ or visual evoked potential changes. MRI abnormalities tended to be more severe in patients with poor dietary control and high current plasma phenylalanine levels, whereas a normal MRI was found only in patients with plasma phenylalanine levels continuously below 0.36 mmol/l. There was marked regression of MRI abnormalities already after 3 months of strict diet control. T2 relaxometry showed a bi-exponential behaviour of T2 in the affected white matter, with a slow component of about 200-450 ms, indicating an increase in free (extracellular) water. 1H spectroscopy revealed no signs of severe neuronal damage. We conclude, that the observed white matter changes in treated HPA probably represent reversible structural myelin changes rather than permanent demyelination.

The results give evidence that even dietary treated children with PKU were suffering from impaired attentional control mechanisms in spite of a normal IQ. The deficits might be the result of impaired frontal lobe functions.

The effect of concurrent phenylalanine levels (Phe-level) on sustained attention was tested in a group of 19 early treated adult PKU patients. Mean age was 20.5 years; WAIS IQs were in the normal range (M = 109.3). Phe-levels were manipulated in a high-low-high design by reintroduction of a strict phenylalanine-reduced diet for 4 to 5 weeks between test time 1 and 2 and returning to usual diet between test time 2 and 3. A control group of 20 healthy subjects, mean age 20.7 years was tested twice. Results of a sustained attention task are presented. In adult PKU patients with high concurrent Phe-levels, sustained attention is significantly impaired and reaction times are prolonged. In the low Phe-level condition, performance improved significantly. Nevertheless, the PKU group did not reach the level of performance of the control group. Results are not influenced by IQ and suggest a sustained attention deficit in adult PKU patients that varies according to the concurrent Phe-level. The partial reversibility of the deficits provides support for the hypothesis that biochemical mechanisms rather than structural changes of the brain underlie the relationship between concurrent Phe-level and sustained attention.

Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in nine treated adolescents with hyperphenylalaninaemia (HPA) in order to analyse possible changes in myelination. Three patients suffered from type I HPA, four from type II and two from type III (persistent HPA). Images were obtained with a 1.5 T unit using spin-echo-sequences. In all patients with type I or type II HPA, abnormal findings in the cerebral white matter were demonstrated including band-like and/or confluent patchy areas of high signal intensity predominantly in the peritrigonal region, with anterior and posterior periventricular extension and/or involvement of the subcortical white matter. The extent of MRI changes did not correlate with the initiation, duration or quality of dietary treatment. There was also no consistent relationship between electrophysiological changes and white matter abnormalities on MRI. Our findings suggest a disturbance of myelination in patients with treated HPA. These results correspond well with earlier neuropathological and biochemical studies in untreated patients.

Different clinical outcomes in spite of comparable dietary controls are well known in patients with phenylketonuria. Currently, reasons for this phenomenon are unknown. Kinetic investigations in 15 patients with classic phenylketonuria were performed using in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy before and after an oral phenylalanine load (100 mg/kg body weight). Patients' brain phenylalanine concentrations were quite different in spite of similar blood phenylalanine levels. Interindividual variations of the apparent transport Michaelis constant, K(t,app), covered a range from 0.10 to 1.03 mmol/L. The ratio of the maximal transport velocity, Tmax, over the intracerebral consumption rate, Vmet, varied between 2.61 and 14.0. Both parameters as well as the preload brain phenylalanine levels correlated significantly with the degree of cerebral white matter abnormalities on magnetic resonance images. Correlations of K(t,app), Tmax/Vmet, and the preload brain phenylalanine levels with patients' intelligence scores approached significance. In conclusion, blood-brain barrier phenylalanine transport characteristics and the resultant brain phenylalanine levels seem to be causative factors for the individual clinical outcome in phenylketonuria. This observation may lead to individual dietary recommendations in the future.

No abstract

In a retrospective study, 34 early treated, normally intelligent adolescents with phenylketonuria (PKU) and their parents were tested with several psychometric personality inventories and self-developed questionaires concerning their psychosocial situation and their disease- and diet-specific knowledge. Results show that the patients are characterized by less autonomy, a more negative evaluation of their scholastic ability, less achievement motivation, low frustration tolerance, more negative self description, less extraversion and impulsiveness, a feeling of not being quite healthy, more grave and a higher level of dependency from their families. The patients saw their whole social situation as being distinctly restricted. Their knowledge concerning disease and diet was alarmingly poor and the majority had great difficulties in managing the diet satisfactorily without parental help. Up to the age of 15 years the serum phenylalanine levels were persistently above the desired range.