ABSTRACT
Two siblings are described who present with fumaric aciduria, a hitherto unreported organic aciduria. The results of our analytical investigations using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and the clinical presentation of the patients, are consistent with the notion that the fumaric aciduria is caused by an inherited defect which leads to a net secretion of fumaric acid by the renal tubules.
Subject(s)
Fumarates/urine , Intellectual Disability/urine , Renal Tubular Transport, Inborn Errors/urine , Speech Disorders/urine , Adult , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
The amino acid profile was studied in individual random samples of urine from 1147 normal schoolchildren and 1074 exceptional children: 628 with mental retardation, 332 with hearing and speech defects and 114 with visual defects as well as in 673 patients with mental disorders. Laboratory procedures included chemical tests and one-dimension paper- electro- and column-chromatography. Phenylketonuria was found in a mentally retarded girl and in one of her brothers; iminoglycinuria in a mentally retarded boy and heterozygote cystinuria in a man with manic-depressive psychosis. The percentage of high excretors of beta-aminoisobutyric acid (B-AIB) in the controls (4.88%) was similar to previous findings in the Caucasian race. The children with hearing and speech defects showed a number of high excretors of B-AIB significantly lower (X2 = 5.32; p less than 0.025) and the children with visual defects a number of hyperglycinurias significantly higher (X2 = 9.19; p less than 0.05). Previous non-consistent findings on the excess of high excretors of B-AIB in Down's syndrome were not confirmed in this study. These results suggest a relationship between transport defects in the plasma membrane and pathological disorders in some of the cases screened.
Subject(s)
Amino Acids/urine , Intellectual Disability/urine , Mental Disorders/urine , Alanine/urine , Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors/urine , Aminoisobutyric Acids/urine , Child , Costa Rica , Creatinine/urine , Female , Glycine/urine , Hearing Disorders/urine , Humans , Male , Phenylalanine/urine , Speech Disorders/urineABSTRACT
A 3.5-year-old Japanese boy with a mild speech disturbance excreted a large amount of alpha-aminoadipic acid into the urine. The amino acid analysis using an amino acid analyser confirmed the presence of alpha-aminoadipic acid in both urine and plasma. We detected alpha-aminoadipic acid in the hydrolysate of the effluent and washwater fraction through cation exchange resin. This suggested the presence of acetylated derivatives and we identified N-acetyl-alpha-aminoadipic acid using liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry (LC-API-MS). The concentrations of alpha-aminoadipic acid and N-acetyl-alpha-aminoadipic acid in the urine of a patient with alpha-aminoadipic aciduria were 376.9 nmol/mg creatinine and 18.1 nmol/mg creatinine, respectively. We also detected alpha-ketoadipic acid in the urine of this patient using LC-API-MS.