What Makes Trans‐indolyl‐3‐acryloylglycine Identified by High‐performance Liquid Chromatography Relevant to Pervasive Developmental Disorders?

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,...