Effectiveness and Impact on the Quality of Life of Ketogenic Diet in Pediatric Patients

Official title

Clinical and Nutritional Effectiveness and Impact on the Quality of Life of the Ketogenic Diet in Pediatric Patients With Neurological, Genetic or Metabolic Disorders: a Multicenter Prospective Observational Study

Overview

The goal of this observational study is to learn about the clinical and nutritional effectiveness of ketogenic diet (KD) in pediatric patients with genetic, neurological or metabolic conditions requiring KD. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: * does KD support adequate growth? * does KD improve clinical symptoms? * how does KD impact quality of life? Participants will be followed up as per clinical practice

Detailed description

Scientific and clinical interest in KD is growing with a progressive increase in its therapeutic indications, ie recent studies show beneficial effects of KD in other diseases like migraine, autism spectrum disorder and brain tumors.

However, so far, the majority of results on KD effects have been collected in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy proving its effectiveness on clinical outcome (e.g. reducing epileptic seizures), frequently leaving out the nutritional assessment and the impact on quality of life. Nonetheless, these factors are indeed essential to ensure safety and efficacy of KD treatment, especially when dealing with children and in perspective of the progressive expansion of the target population that can benefit from this nutritional therapy.

The present multicenter study aims to analyse these poorly explored areas, by evaluating, in a cohort of pediatrics patient with indication to KD therapy, not only the KD effectiveness on the course of the underlying disease, but also the impact on nutritional parameters (e.g. growth, lipid profile, vitamin intake, bone mineral density, ..) and on quality of life.

Interventions

• Other ketogenic diet (as per clinical practice)
  Patients recruited receive a ketogenic diet. The prescription, the type of KD protocol and the route of administration will depend, essentially, on the patient's ability and willingness to feed spontaneously and independently, as well as on compliance with the therapies set and the severity of the clinical conditions.

Primary outcome measures

• Nutritional adequacy [Time frame: 6 months]

Secondary outcome measures (3)

• Nutritional adequacy [Time frame: 6 months,(12 months optional)]
• % of responders to KD [Time frame: 6 months,(12 months optional)]
• Health related quality of life improvement through parent questionnaire [Time frame: 6 months,(12 months optional)]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Pediatric patients (aged < 18 years) with drug-resistant epilepsy (fail to achieve (and maintain) seizure freedom with adequate trials of two or more antiseizure medications) or genetic, metabolic, neurological (congenital and acquired) diseases treated with ketogenic diet
• Pediatric patients (aged < 18 years) with metabolic, genetic or neurological (congenital and acquired) diseases (not necessarily associated with drug-resistant epilepsy) treated with ketogenic diet; this includes the new KD indications or the administration of KD in the ICU for status epilepticus.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients affected by beta-oxidation cycle disorders, systemic primary carnitine deficiency, primary dyslipidemia, pyruvate carboxylase deficiency, porphyria, mitochondrial disease, defects in ketone body metabolism (ketogenesis or ketolysis), defect in gluconeogenesis.
• Children with type 1 diabetes
• Parents (or caregivers) unable to guarantee adherence to the

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Observational model

Cohort

Study locations

Italy · 3 centers

• ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco (PO "V. Buzzi") — Milan
• Fondazione "Istituto Neurologico Nazionale C. Mondino" — Pavia
• Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù — Roma

Publications

• Bertoli S, Foppiani A, De Amicis R, Leone A, Mastella C, Bassano M, Giaquinto E, Baranello G, Battezzati A. Anthropometric measurement standardization for a multicenter nutrition survey in children with spinal muscular atrophy. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019 Dec;73(12):1646-1648. doi: 10.1038/s41430-019-0392-2. Epub 2019 Jan 15. PMID 30647441
• Cole TJ, Flegal KM, Nicholls D, Jackson AA. Body mass index cut offs to define thinness in children and adolescents: international survey. BMJ. 2007 Jul 28;335(7612):194. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39238.399444.55. Epub 2007 Jun 25. PMID 17591624
• Hershey AD, Powers SW, Vockell AL, LeCates S, Kabbouche MA, Maynard MK. PedMIDAS: development of a questionnaire to assess disability of migraines in children. Neurology. 2001 Dec 11;57(11):2034-9. doi: 10.1212/wnl.57.11.2034. PMID 11739822
• Kossoff EH, Zupec-Kania BA, Auvin S, Ballaban-Gil KR, Christina Bergqvist AG, Blackford R, Buchhalter JR, Caraballo RH, Cross JH, Dahlin MG, Donner EJ, Guzel O, Jehle RS, Klepper J, Kang HC, Lambrechts DA, Liu YMC, Nathan JK, Nordli DR Jr, Pfeifer HH, Rho JM, Scheffer IE, Sharma S, Stafstrom CE, Thiele EA, Turner Z, Vaccarezza MM, van der Louw EJTM, Veggiotti P, Wheless JW, Wirrell EC; Charlie Fou PMID 29881797

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06309251 · KetoSTrENgTH

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗