PROTEIN BALANCE STUDIES IN PATIENTS WITH LIVER DAMAGE. II. THE RÔLE OF LIPOTROPIC AGENTS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Confirming the original work of Patek and of others, a high protein, high vitamin intake is of value in the treatment of patients with chronic liver disease. The addition of choline chloride to such a diet in some patients with chronic liver damage causes a very significant improvement in over-all protein anabolism, as shown by balance studies. At the present time, the record is not quite so clear in regard to added methionine. The choline effect would appear to be referable to something more than a mere lipotropic action, inasmuch as the patients studied were shown by liver biopsy to be essentially free of excess liver fat deposition during the period of study. Because of rapid unpredictable changes in patients with acute hepatitis, it is impossible to say that choline or methionine are of significant benefit in the management of these patients.