Effects of a new amino acid supplement on blood AA pools in patients with chronic renal failure.

We designed a new formula for AA supplement in order to correct blood pools of AA in chronic renal failure (CRF). This supplement was given to 5 patients with CRF and its effectiveness was tested during long term (12-24 weeks) administration. The patients had previously been on a diet providing 0.6 g of protein and 34-36 kcal/kg/day. The diet was then modified to one providing the same caloric content but only 0.3 g/kg high biological value protein per day with the addition of the AA supplement (0.3 g/kg). The new diet corrected most of the abnormalities in blood AA pools. After 1 month of treatment Val, Leu, Thr, Ser and Tyr levels rose and became normal throughout the study. Ratios Tyr/Phe, Ser/Gly and Val/Gly also improved. During the treatment no side effect or toxicity was observed, and serum albumin, transferrin and nutritional anthropometric parameters persisted to be normal. It is concluded that this specially designed AA supplement added to a hypoproteic diet is an acceptable regimen which can quite completely correct the imbalance in blood AA pools in CRF.