Abnormal regulation of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in Reye's syndrome.

Seeking to determine the effect of liver disease associated with Reye's syndrome on the regulation of plasma pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, we measured this compound in plasma from 11 patients with biopsy-proven Reye's syndrome. Its concentrations in plasma are significantly higher [37.5 (SD 6.13) micrograms/L] at the onset of the disease than after treatment [8.50 (SD 2.9) micrograms/L] or in a group of hospitalized patients with no evidence of liver disease [8.4 (SD 1.5) micrograms/L]. The concentration of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in plasma at the time the patients entered the hospital correlated significantly with their activities of serum alanine aminotransferase.