Iron Supplements Effect on b-Phe Levels in PKU Patients During 3 Years Study

This clinical trial study aims to Evaluate whether iron supplementation for 3 months may help reduce Phe blood concentration in PKU patients by enhancing the hydroxylation of Phe to tyrosine (Tyr). 84 patients affected by PKU with low Phe-controlled diet therapy (aged 3-25 years, both genders, 35 females and 49 males), were randomly enrolled in this 3 years study using Randomized Block Design. Patients were divided in two different groups: group (A) was treated with low Phe diet therapy and iron supplementation while group (B) was treated only with low Phe diet therapy. The duration of iron supplementation was 3 consecutive months for each patient in group (A). During this study, 3 hematological and clinical controls were performed at T0 (the enrolment day), T3 (3 months from T0), and T6 (6 months from T0) another TG was done at T1, T2, T4, and T5. During the clinical control blood samples for phenylalanine, and tyrosine were performed on all patients. A computer-generated block sequence balanced randomly assigned subjects to two different groups of 42 patients. The investigator who generated the randomization sequence was independent of the research staff. Energy calculation and diet preparation are according to the "Reference intake levels of nutrients and energy for the Italian population (LARN)" and RDA (USA- Recommended Daily Allowance). The patients were informed through the consent form about all study details. The researcher clarified that the iron supplementation was provided to patients for the purpose of studying "Phe" levels, oxidative stress, and inflammatory reactions, and not for treating Anemia before enrolling in this study. The amount of supplementary iron was decided for patients according to the daily requirement (8- 18 mg / day), according to LARN 2012 and (RDAs) for Iron. The number of patients in group A (42 patients) that consumed iron of 1 sac (14 mg/day) was 26 patients (61.9 %), of them 18 males and 8 females, in comparison with patien