Vitamin A status in biliary atresia: intestinal absorption and liver storage of retinol.
The vitamin A status of 19 patients with corrected biliary atresia was examined. They had been receiving 5,000 IU of oral vitamin A daily postoperatively. Plasma vitamin A levels in the nonjaundiced group were almost within normal range, whereas those in the jaundiced group were significantly low compared with the controls. In the oral vitamin A tolerance test, plasma vitamin A levels increased from 33.1 +/- 11.8 to 215.4 +/- 100.7 micrograms/dL in the nonjaundiced group, and from 23.1 +/- 10.3 to 209.8 +/- 154.2 micrograms/dL in the slightly jaundiced group, at 4 hours after the administration of vitamin A, showing no difference between both group and control. In the severely jaundiced group, plasma vitamin A levels increased from 13.5 +/- 3.5 to 30.0 +/- 14.6 micrograms/dL, a significantly smaller increase compared with controls. However, liver vitamin A levels were greater than 20 micrograms/g liver in all patients, irrespective of the presence of jaundice. This study suggested that nutritional support to facilitate the synthesis of retinol-binding protein may be an important factor in addition to vitamin A supplementation.
Fukui
Y
Y
Department of Pediatric Surgery, Osaka University Medical School, Japan.
Okada
A
A
Kawahara
H
H
Imura
K
K
Kamata
S
S
Kimura
S
S
Harada
T
T
D000284:Administration, Oral; D001656:Biliary Atresia / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007408:Intestinal Absorption; D007565:Jaundice / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011171:Portoenterostomy, Hepatic; D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D054839:Retinol-Binding Proteins, Plasma; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins; D054839:Retinol-Binding Proteins, Plasma; D014801:Vitamin A