May
7
Written by:
Ranken Jordan
Friday, May 07, 2010
Press Release
Ranken Jordan - A Pediatric Specialty Hospital’s dietitian Joyce Peipert, MMSc, RD, recently wrote an article on a study about metabolic control of Phenylketonuria (PKU). The study, Changes in Metabolic Control of Phenylketonuria in Children Attending a Summer Camp 
, was published in the April 2010 edition of the pediatric peer-reviewed nutrition Journal for Infant, Child, and Adolescent Nutrition (ICAN). The study focuses on 18 children ranging in ages between seven and 15 years with classic phenylketonuria (PKU). PKU is a rare genetic disorder in which infants, children and adults have an inability to metabolize the amino acid, PKU, a building block of protein. The 18 children attended a five-day summer camp in Sandwich, Mass., in 2003.
While the staff planned and coordinated the children’s diet, the young campers organized their own daily food choices. The children would choose their meals from a low protein diet cafeteria and prepare their own metabolic formula. On the first and last day of camp the children provided a blood sample on filter papers for analysis by tandem mass spectroscopy to measure change in PKU.
The prescribed range of blood phenylalanine (Phe) is two to 6 mg/dL. The average Phe level at the beginning of the camp was 8.8 mg/dL and the final blood Phe average was 4.6 mg/dL. These pre- and post-camp differences were clinically and statistically significant. The camp program demonstrated the success of a highly monitored diet accompanied by a metabolic formula with the responsibility in the hands of the campers for the majority of time spent at camp. The camp environment helped the children learn to control their PKU in a comfortable setting with peers dealing with the same condition. The camp experience clearly demonstrated improved metabolic control for campers.
Joyce Peipert is passionate about learning and sharing information that improves our understanding of diet and nutrition. She has had an article published in the Journal of Pediatrics and has worked with Yale University Medical Service. Along with her husband, a medical doctor and Ph.D. whose work required extensive travel, she has lived in many places throughout the U.S. While on the east coast, she had the opportunity to be a part of the PKU camp run by Children’s Hospital of Boston.
Joyce’s most recent article on PKU camp was published in the ICAN journal, a publication which reaches the main audiences about whom Joyce cares. As one of the camp dietitians, Joyce was able to experience and measure the results of the PKU camp and then share her information, which was reviewed by colleagues before publication.