title: Plasma oxalate concentration in chronic renal disease.
abstract: Plasma oxalate was measured with use of the enzyme oxalate oxidase (EC 1.2.3.4; normal values 3.3 +/- 1.5 mumol/L, n = 24) in 50 patients with different degrees of renal failure. The following mean concentrations +/- SD (in mumol/L) were found: for glomerular diseases, 12.7 +/- 7.8 (n = 21); tubular diseases, 20.4 +/- 14.0 (n = 16); chronic renal failure before dialysis, 32.5 +/- 13.5, and after dialysis, 17.8 +/- 3.8 (n = 10); and primary hyperoxalemia, 72.2 +/- 14.5 14.5 (n = 2). The course of plasma oxalate was followed in one of these two patients after renal transplantation and in a patient recovering from acute tubular necrosis. No significant differences were found between patients with glomerular and tubular disorders. Overall, plasma oxalate was correlated with plasma creatinine in patients with glomerular and tubular diseases and dialysis patients (r = .84, P less than .001). Patients with primary hyperoxalemia had values outside the 95% confidence area of the regression line. It is concluded that the values obtained with this method, although probably still tending to overestimate the true oxalate concentration to some extent, provide reliable information about relative differences in plasma oxalate levels. In patients with terminal renal failure, plasma oxalate sometimes rises to levels at which deposition of calcium oxalate in tissues can occur.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002129:Calcium Oxalate / Q000097:blood*; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000503:physiopathology; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006435:Renal Dialysis
chemical_list: D002129:Calcium Oxalate; D003404:Creatinine