Abstract
Purpose: To assess the prevalence of trans‐indolyl‐3‐acryloylglycine (IAcrGly) in the urine of people with a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) compared with controls.
Design: A case–control study of urinary IAcrGly levels.
Materials and Methods: The electronic records of developmental and current medical status and urinary results of 500 patients formally diagnosed with PDD (autism, Asperger syndrome and autism spectrum disorder) and controls (no diagnosis) were examined for the presence of urinary IAcrGly identified by gradient elution high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), co‐morbidity of epilepsy and current use of medication.
Results: Urinary IAcrGly was identified in more samples from the PDD groups than the controls, although this was not significant (p=0.063, Fisher's exact test, two‐sided). The accompanying rates of epileptic disorders and current use of medication known to affect HPLC results were, however, also significantly higher in the PDD groups (χ2=8.070, df=1, p<0.004) (χ2=4.203, df=1, p<0.04), respectively.
Conclusions: Further studies are required to ascertain the relevance of urinary IAcrGly to PDD. Future research should focus on the development of more sensitive and quantitative assays of IAcrGly taking into account confounding variables such as co‐morbid disorders such as epilepsy and the use of medication that may affect urinary profiles.