title: Muscle and plasma carnitine levels and urinary carnitine excretion in multiply injured patients on total parenteral nutrition.
abstract: Carnitine is necessary for the transport of long-chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane. Thirteen severely injured patients on total parenteral nutrition were studied during days 2-8 post injury. Initially plasma and skeletal muscle carnitine values were within the range earlier found for normal subjects, whereas the urinary carnitine excretion was markedly increased. On day 4 there was a simultaneous decrease in the carnitine concentration in plasma (alpha < 0.01) and urine (alpha < 0.05) as well as in skeletal muscle tissue (alpha < 0.05 using only the values that could be paired i.e. from eight subjects), whereas no difference was found between day 2 and 8. One explanation of this pattern might be that a redistribution of carnitine occurs to other organs not measured, for example the liver. In skeletal muscle tissue, statistically significant positive correlations were found between the carnitine level and ATP (alpha < 0.01) and phosphocreatine (alpha < 0.02) as well as between carnitine and glycogen (alpha < 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Linköping, S-581 85 Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cederblad
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schildt