Abstract
Summary
1. Fourteen patients with congestive heart failure and 14 control patients without heart failure were studied with the tryptophan load test. 2. Urinary xanthurenic acid excretion following tryptophan load was significantly greater in the cardiac group than in controls. Mean XA excretion of the group with congestive failure was 35.6 mg/24 hours with standard deviation of 22.8. Mean excretion of the control group was 12.9 mg/24 hours with standard deviation of 5.2 mg/24 hours. 3. The heart failure group, which attained a higher level of XA excretion than the control group in the post tryptophan period, showed a greater decline in XA excretion after pyridoxine than the controls. 4. Since pyridoxine is required for orderly catabolism of tryptophan and pyridoxine corrects this metabolic aberration of tryptophan, it is not unreasonable to state that in congestive heart failure availability of Vit. B6 is limited.
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