Decreased aspartate aminotransferase (“SGOT”) activity in serum of uremic patients

Aspartate aminotransferase activity in the serum of ure-mic patients and of normal individuals was analyzed by three different methods: (a) a manual ultraviolet method, (b) a manual colorimetric method, and (c) by continuous flow (SMA 12/60 AutoAnalyzer; Technicon). Both di-alyzed and undialyzed uremic patients exhibit low values for serum aspartate aminotransferase activity, regard-less of the method used. The SMA 12/60 procedure ex-aggerates this decrease because of ultraviolet-absorb-ing materials in uremic serum. The activity of this en-zyme did not exceed normal values in one uremic pa-tient after a myocardial infarction and recurrent severe cardiac episodes. Such results suggest that this proce-dure should be used with great care as an index for diagnosing myocardial infarctions (and perhaps hepati-tis) in uremic patients. AddItIonal Keyphrases: AutoAnalyzer #{149}inter-method com-parison #{149}diagnostic aid #{149}myocardial infarction #{149}hep-atitis LaDue et al. (1) first drew attention to the clinical importance of aspartate aminotransferase (AST; EC 2.6.1.1., L-aspartate:2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase; formerly commonly called serum glutamic oxaloace-tic transaminase, SGOT)1 as an aid in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Extensive subsequent re-ports steadily support their original findings. After myocardial infarction, AST activity is significantl