| [ Summary ] |
Dialysis patients are allowed limited quantities of carnitine rich foods. This 162-dalton water-soluble quaternary amine is easily dialyzed, so dialysis patients have a propensity towards deficiency of carnitine. We previously reported that a deficiency and depletion of carnitine was more noted in large dialysis dose hemodialysis patients. On the other hand, carnitine deficiency was not so severe and the plasma carnitine levels remained in the normal range in CAPD patients, but there was a characteristic change in carnitine quality ; plasma concentrations of acylcarnitine (AC) were elevated and the ratio of AC to free carnitine (FC) was markedly increased over normal. The excretion of AC in urine was much greater than that of FC, while the excretion of FC in the dialysate was greater than that of AC. However, this study produced results showing that plasm levels of MDA-LDL significantly decreased but that the decrease in Ox-LDL plasma levels was not significant. On the other hand, in CAPD patients, there was no significant change in oxidized LDL. Considering the over all results, our data suggested that a lower dose of carnitine was more reliable in correcting lipid abnormalities, but that the antioxidant effect on lipid metabolism might be weak. |