Citation

Bales JR, Bell JD, Nicholson JK, Sadler PJ, Timbrell JA, Hughes RD, Bennett PN, Williams R. Magn. Reson. Med. 1988; 6(3): 300-306.

Affiliation

Department of Chemistry, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3362065

Abstract

1H NMR spectra of urine and plasma from subjects who had taken paracetamol (acetaminophen) at a therapeutic dose or in self-poisoning episodes (both fatal and nonfatal) are compared. They provide convenient metabolic profiles. For overdose cases, intense resonances corresponding to high levels of both drug and endogenous metabolites are observed. The ratios of glucuronide to sulfate conjugates are unusually high in urine from overdose cases. Elevated levels of the cysteinyl and N-acetyl cysteinyl conjugates reflect increased glutathione conjugation in the liver. The observed excretion of high levels of amino acids by overdose subjects is suggestive of drug-induced hepatic damage. No resonances for drug metabolites are detected in plasma samples. However, characteristic and abnormally intense resonances for the amino acids Phe, Tyr, His, Gln, Pro, Ala, Val, Lys, Met, Ser, and Thr are indicative of severe liver failure and disruption of normal deamination and transamination processes.

Language: en