Plasma polyamine levels in patients with liver insufficiency.

Abstract

Relevant statistical approaches demonstrated a normal distribution of the values for the healthy control group and an abnormal distribution in the diseased group. Within both groups the polyamines were found to be mutually linearly correlated with the exception of the putrescine — spermine pair in the normals and the diaminopropane/spermine pair in the patients. A comparison between the diseased and healthy groups demonstrated significant elevations of putrescine, cadaverine, and spermidine in the former. In 78% of the patients, at least one of the polyamines was found to be abnormally elevated, whereas no elevations whatsoever were observed in 22% of the cases. Putrescine, at concentrations up to 3 / , and cadaverine up to 6 / showed the highest elevations in comparison to normals (85.3 ± 35.3 nmol/1 for putrescine and lower than 20 nmol/1 for cadaverine). Spermidine, spermine and diaminopropane concentrations reached concentrations of approximately 1 >1/1, 500 nmol/1 and 150 nmol/1, compared with the mean normal values of 94.6 ± 34.5 nmol/1, 39.8 ± 29.2 nmol/1, and 16.9 ± 9.31 nmol/1, respectively. In patients, cadaverine is inversely correlated with the liver normotest, and spermine is directly correlated with cholinesterase activity. Liver involvement is discussed with regard to the Value of polyamine levels as tumour markers. No definite conclusions can be drawn as to the cause of the polyamine elevations found in liver-diseased patients.