Tests for Phenylketonuria

New Stick Test for P.A.S. in Urine

“…in urine. With phenylpyruvic acid the reagent strip changes to a green colour (Rupe and Free, 1958;Baird, 1958;Nellhaus, 1959;Gibbs and Woolf, 1959), whereas with P.A.S. it turns a pink or purple, according to the amount present.…”

Treatment of phenylketonuria

“…In this " high-risk " group it is advisable not to rely only on detecting phenylpyruvic acid in the urine but to determine the concentration of phenylalanine in the blood at the ages Early detection by means of urine tests has presented certain special difficulties because of the occurrence of false-negative and false-positive results. Those who are planning programmes for routine testing of the urines of infants are recommended to study three papers (Gibbs and Woolf, 1959;Hudson and Ireland, 1959;Boyd, 1961) in which the production of fallacious results is described and advice given on methods of avoiding this.…”

Phenylketonuria: A Reassessment of Mass Infant Screening by Napkin Test

“…This test is a sensitive and reliable method of detecting phenylpyruvic aciduria (Gibbs and Woolf, 1959;Woolf, 1963), which is an early sign of true phenylketonuria (Allen et al, 1964;Berry and Wright, 1967). Some practical difficulties have been emphasized by Hudson and Ireland (1959), but information is lacking on the effectiveness of the napkin test in mass detection programmes.…”