Carnitine deficiency induced during intermittent haemodialysis for renal failure.

Carnitine concentration was measured in plasma, muscle, and dialysate before and after haemodialysis in patients with renal failure and in plasma and muscle of healthy controls. In eight of the nine patients carnitine concentration in muscle after haemodialysis was only 10% of the concentration in controls. Plasma-carnitine varied in patients before dialysis and in all of them was reduced by dialysis. The loss of carnitine into the dialysate (190--2100 mumol/treatment) greatly exceeded the normal loss in urine for most of patients, and was only partly compensated for. In some patients normal or high plasma-carnitine and low concentrations in muscle indicated that the carnitine-concentrating mechanisms in the muscle cell had failed. The reduction in carnitine will interfere seriously with normal cellular functions and this may help to explain the clinical syndrome of cardiomyopathy and cardiac failure which has been observed in some patients treated for a long time with intermittent haemodialysis.