Plasma amino acid concentrations (aminogram) show distinct patterns under various
pathologic conditions. However, the plasma aminogram pattern in patients with pulmonary
hypertension (PH) has not been elucidated. We sought to examine whether an aminogram
could be predictive of clinical severity in patients with PH. We attained fasting
plasma aminograms for 140 patients with PH and then compared the patient plasma amino
acid levels with those of age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects. Aminograms
revealed that the plasma concentrations of many amino acids were significantly different
between patients with PH and healthy control subjects. We focused on the Fischer ratio
(branched-chain amino acids/aromatic amino acids) as an integrated parameter. In all
enrolled patients, Fischer ratio was negatively correlated with New York Heart Association
functional class (ρ = −0.37, p <0.001), plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (ρ = −0.35,
p <0.001), and pulmonary vascular resistance (ρ = −0.27, p = 0.002) and positively
correlated with venous oxygen saturation (ρ = 0.27, p = 0.002) and 6-minute walk distance
(ρ = 0.23, p = 0.016). Time course changes in Fischer ratio and in cardiac output
were significantly correlated (ρ = 0.39, p = 0.024). The aminogram is changed in patients
with PH, and in these patients, Fischer ratio decreases in proportion to the clinical
severity of PH.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to American Journal of CardiologyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Homoarginine, cardiovascular risk, and mortality.Circulation. 2010; 122: 967-975
- L-arginine and tetrahydrobiopterin protects against ischemia/reperfusion-induced endothelial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease.Atherosclerosis. 2009; 204: 73-78
- L-arginine plasma levels and severity of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.Vasa. 2008; 37: 61-67
- Short-term oral administration of L-arginine improves hemodynamics and exercise capacity in patients with precapillary pulmonary hypertension.Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2001; 163: 887-891
- Network analysis of plasma and tissue amino acids and the generation of an amino index for potential diagnostic use.Am J Clin Nutr. 2006; 83: 513S-519S
- Characterization of dietary protein-dependent amino acid metabolism by linking free amino acids with transcriptional profiles through analysis of correlation.Physiol Genomics. 2008; 34: 315-326
- Insulin, glucagon, amino acid imbalance, and hepatic encephalopathy.Lancet. 1976; 2: 880-882
- Interorgan amino acid transport and its regulation.J Nutr. 2003; 133: 2068S-2072S
- Novel, objective, multivariate biomarkers composed of plasma amino acid profiles for the diagnosis and assessment of inflammatory bowel disease.PLoS One. 2012; 7: e31131
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 06, 2015
Accepted:
December 13,
2014
Received in revised form:
December 13,
2014
Received:
October 22,
2014
Footnotes
Drs. Yanagisawa and Kataoka contributed equally to this work.
See page 836 for disclosure information.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
