Lipid metabolites and nitrogen balance after abdominal surgery in man

Abstract

Summary The relation of lipid metabolism to nitrogen balance was studied in patients having undergone abdominal surgery and was compared with control subjects who had fasted for a similar period. The patients had lower circulating concentrations of glycerol, non-esterified fatty acids and ketone bodies. There were inverse correlations between blood alanine and ketone body concentrations in both patients (r = −064, P < 0.01) and controls (r = − 0.58, P < 0.01). Nitrogen excretion by patients (12.7 mmol/kg body weight/day ± 1.4 s.e. mean) was greater than by controls (9.2 mmol kg−1 d−1 ± 0.8, P < 0.05), but a more marked difference was noted for urinry methyl histidine excretion of 5.1 ± 0.5 μmol kg−1 d−1 by patients and only 2.5 ± 0.3 μmol kg−1 d−1 by controls (P < 0.01), a disparity indicative of more active protein turnover after surgery.