Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023890 (cirrhosis)
 42,195 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An adult female case of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency is presented in the following. The patient had had past episodes of drowsiness with a duration less than a few minutes several times a year during childhood. She suddenly became comatose at 25 years of age, and died after 13 months of persistent vegetative state. Blood chemistry showed hyperammonemia with no liver cirrhosis or portal-systemic shunt. Plasma amino acid analysis indicated elevated glutamate and glycine levels, and plasma levels of citrulline and arginine to be low. The urinary orotic acid level was high. OTC activity of a liver specimen was 65 percent of the normal level. This is a rare case demonstrating hyperglycinemia and an elevated level of serum OTC. The importance of ruling out defective ureagenesis in adults with disturbed consciousness should be emphasized.
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PMID:[A case of ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency presenting severe symptoms in adulthood]. 129 Nov 70

Following a single oral dose of 10 mg/kg of [15N]glycine, plasma [15N]glycine kinetics and urinary 15N excretion were measured in 12 cirrhosis patients and in 6 control subjects. Cirrhosis patients were divided into two groups of 6 patients with and without a history of hepatic encephalopathy designated as group II and group I, respectively. Thirty minutes after oral administration of labeled glycine, the plasma concentration of [15N]glycine was significantly higher in both cirrhosis groups than that in the control group (P less than 0.05 and P less than 0.01). The elimination constant of plasma [15N]glycine slightly decreased in group II, but not significantly. Urinary 15N excretion did not differ among the three groups, but the rate of urinary ammonia 15N in urinary 15N was significantly increased in group II (P less than 0.05). The whole-body protein flux did not differ among the three groups, but whole-body protein breakdown was significantly increased in group II cirrhosis patients (P less than 0.05). These findings indicated that the kinetics of glycine were substantially altered in severe cirrhosis patients. Because hepatic uptake and oxidation of glycine was well maintained even in group II, increased endogenous protein breakdown seemed to be responsible for hyperglycinemia and also for the negative nitrogen balance seen in this group.
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PMID:[15N]glycine metabolism in normal and cirrhotic subjects. 238 24