| Abstract: | We monitored urinary aluminium excretion in 60 renal allograftrecipients for the first 6 months following transplantation.Plasma and urinary aluminium values steadily decreased duringthe study period. Patients who suffered two or more bacterialinfections during this period excreted more urinary aluminiumthan those with only one or no infections. Twenty patients experienced a two-fold or greater sudden unexpectedincrease in urinary aluminium excretion; 14 of these patients(60 per cent) had evidence of infection (10 bacterial and fourviral), at this time. Both urinary aluminium and fractionalaluminium excretion were greater in the 10 patients with bacterialinfection than in the other 10 patients. Thus, patients who suffered bacterial infections had higherbase-line urinary aluminium excretion, suggesting a higher bodyburden of aluminium. In addition, bacterial sepsis was associatedwith aluminium release from tissue stores with an associatedincrease in urinary aluminium excretion. This implies that patientswith an increased body burden of aluminium are more prone tobacterial sepsis, and that aluminium excretion is increasedduring sepsis. |
