A Neonatal Screening Test for Argininosuccinic Acid Lyase Deficiency and Other Urea Cycle Disorders

A simple enzyme-multiple auxotroph assay has been developed for the identification of newborn infants with several of the inherited metabolic defects in the Krebs cycle for the detoxification of ammonia and in the ornithine metabolic pathway. This mass screening test is used with dried filter paper blood specimens and can easily be added to existing multiple testing programs presently used in screening for phenylketonuria or congenital hypothyroidism. This assay can be used to detect patients with citrullinemia, argininosuccinic acid lyase deficiency, and argininemia. In addition to these urea cycle disorders, the several types of ornithinemia, which can result in gyrate atrophy of the retina or mental retardation, should be detectable with this assay. The strengths and weaknesses of this assay are discussed and a large-scale pilot screening trial is proposed.