Abstract
Urinary nitrogen determination provides important information regarding dietary protein intake and relative state of catabolism and anabolism. Stress, e.g. surgery, sepsis, organ system failure, causes increased tissue breakdown resulting in increased body nitrogen loss. Urea, formed in the liver, is the primary means in humans for nitrogen removal through urinary excretion (UUN). UUN has been shown to be 80–85% of Total Urinary Nitrogen (TUN) in adults but somewhat less in children. We examined UUN vs. TUN excretion in 16 Peds ICU patients over 25 patient days (PD).
The values for TUN and UUN agree with values in the literature. We found that patients with liver failure and bacterial or fungal sepsis have UUN production similar to post-surgical patients but higher TUN production. We conclude that stress associated with these two conditions causes an increase in non-urea nitrogen excretion.
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Steinhorn, D., Radmer, W., Weisdorf, S. et al. 216 ALTERED URINARY NITROGEN EXCRETION IN SEPSIS AND LIVER FAILURE IN CRITICALLY-ILL CHILDREN. Pediatr Res 19, 146 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-00246
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-00246
