title: N-methylnicotinamide as a possible prognostic indicator of recovery from leukaemia in patients treated with total-body irradiation and bone marrow transplants.
abstract: N-methylnicotinamide was determined in urine from patients with acute myelocytic leukaemia following total-body X-irradiation with 8.6 Gy and bone marrow transplantation. Patients that are alive and in excellent condition i.e. with acute leukaemia in full remission showed a distinct enhanced excretion of this metabolite about 20 days p.r. which returned to normal levels at about day 40 p.r. Patients that have died intercurrently of early leukaemic recurrences showed considerable fluctuations in N-methylnicotinamide excretion over the entire period and no "normalization" of levels in these patients was seen. In those cases where late leukaemic recurrence or infections were the cause of death, usually after discharge from the clinic, excretion patterns typical of those seen in disease-free patients were observed. We thus conclude that this metabolite appears to be a suitable tentative prognostic indicator for the overall state of recovery from leukaemia in the patients.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male; D009536:Niacinamide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000652:urine; D011379:Prognosis; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation
chemical_list: D009536:Niacinamide; C024058:N(1)-methylnicotinamide