| [ Summary ] |
Prior enzymatic methods for assaying serum L-carnitine have required complex pre-treatment of special facilities. An enzymatic cycling method is sensitive enough to determine low concentrations of L-carnitine in serum. This method measures the increase of absorbance at 415 nm of thio-NADH in the carnitine dehydrogenase reaction. The reaction rate is proportional to the carnitine concentration. In serum, the concentrations of total carnitine, free carnitine and a cylcarnitine in men (n=162) were 69.2 +/- 1O.40 microM, 56.5 +/- 9.09 microM and 12.6 +/- 3.9O microM (mean +/- SD) respectively. In women (n=144), the concentrations of total carnitine, free carnitine and acylcarnitine were 60.4 +/- 11.15 microM, 47.4 +/- 7.66 microM and 13.0 +/- 6.79 microM (mean +/- SD) respectively. |