Plasma, red cell and cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of myoinositol in patients with severe chronic renal failure.

A study was made of 24 patients with severe chronic renal failure; 14 of them were undergoing regular haemodialysis treatment 3 times weekly. Plasma, red-cell and cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of myoinositol were increased in all the patients treated conservatively. The plasma level of myoinositol correlated with the plasma level of creatinine (r = 0.78). The plasma myoinositol level increased more than the CSF and red-cell levels, indicating that the myoinositol in the red cells and the CSF originated mostly in plasma. Dialysis for eight hours produced a fall of about 50% in the level of myoinositol in plasma while the decrease in red-cell myoinositol was negligible. This lead to an osmotic grandient between extra- and intra-cellular myoinositol which was however small in molar terms and did not correlate with symptoms of central neurological disturbances.