 Because the characteristic elevations associated with ALD are present at birth, well before any symptoms are apparent, there have been methods developed in the interests of including it in newborn screening programs.One of the difficulties with ALD as a disease included in universal newborn screening is the difficulty in predicting the eventual phenotype that an individual will express.The accepted treatment for affected boys presenting with the cerebral childhood form of the disease is a bone marrow transplant, a procedure which carries significant risks.