The Impact of the First 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown on the Metabolic Control of Patients with Phenylketonuria

The present study assessed patients' metabolic control of phenylketonuria (PKU) during the first 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Poland. Blood (phenylalanine) Phe results of the tests of 535 patients, performed in 2019 and in the first months of 2020, were analysed. The six-week lockdown period was compared to the preceding six-week period as well as to the two corresponding periods of 2019 (three non-lockdown periods). More patients failed to perform Phe tests in the lockdown period (32.7%) than in non-lockdown periods (15.6%, 15.1%, 17.2%; p < 0.001 for all). The median Phe levels for those patients who performed testing in all the four periods did not differ between periods. However, these patients tended to perform only one test during the lockdown (ORs: 1.43 to 1.60; 95% CI: from 1.01-2.04 to 1.11-2.30, p-value 0.02 to 0.005). Patients who did not take blood during the lockdown (46.7%) performed significantly fewer blood tests in the remaining periods (median : 1 vs. 2 ; p < 0.001). In conclusion, direct assessment of patients' compliance based upon Phe levels during the pandemic lockdown was not possible. Pre-pandemic non-compliant patients frequently failed to perform the test during the lockdown, whereas the previously compliant ones were more likely to perform only one test. This strongly suggests that metabolic control might have worsened.