American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 20, 415-421, Copyright © 1967 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and Lipids in Serum of Children with Cystic Fibrosis or Congenital Heart Defects Compared with Normal Children

¹ From Bruce Lyon Memorial Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Oakland, California, and Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California

The serum levels of vitamin A, vitamin E, and cholesterol and the fatty acid distribution in the serum total fatty acids of children with cystic fibrosis or congenital heart defects were compared with those of normal children. Fatty acid composition of dietary fat was calculated from 7-day diet records. Although the linoleate level in sera of CF and CHD patients was about two-thirds the normal value, the bevels of arachidonic and 8,11,14-eicosatrienoic acids, metabolic products of linoleic acid, were similar in all groups. The serum values for vitamin A and vitamin E in CF patients were about one-half the values for the normal but in CHD patients the values were similar to the normal. Thus, the how linoleate values in CHD did not appear to be rebated to serum vitamin E levels. Nor did the differences in serum fatty acid patterns appear to be directly rebated to diet, since the diet patterns of the CHD subjects were like that of the normal while the CF children consumed fat which had a higher ratio of linoleate-to-saturated fat.