Development of guidelines for treatment of children with phenylketonuria: report of a meeting at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development held August 15, 1995, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

OBJECTIVE To convene a small group of experts in diagnosis and management of PKU to discuss the following issues: the Subject Review of PKU management being performed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Genetics (COG), the published British guidelines on PKU management, and the feasibility, suitability, and mechanism of developing PKU management guidelines for the United States. METHODS A 1-day meeting was held at the National Institutes of Health under the auspices of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, convening experts in PKU diagnosis and management and members of the AAP/COG. RESULTS The group reviewed the published reports of outcomes of treatment of PKU and the British guidelines that were developed based on those data. It also reviewed the results of surveys of directors of clinics that manage PKU, parents of children with PKU, and young adults with PKU. CONCLUSION The group supported the efforts of the AAP/COG to perform this review of PKU management. The group concluded that significant issues need to be resolved to provide sufficient information to establish US guidelines for PKU management. The establishment of such guidelines is an important next step in PKU management in the United States.