Discussion

Abstract

We have done some oral myoinositol tests, and we essentially confirmed all of Dr. Clements’ findings. But, since we have so many diabetic kidney recipients around, and since the kidney was possibly one of the main sites for the metabolism of myoinositol, we also obtained oral myoinositol intolerance tests in patients who had received their kidneys about two to three years prior. Their control was as poor as any other patient’s but their creatinine clearance was normal. To our great surprise, the oral myoinositol in these kidney recipients was normal. We could think of only two explanations, but we have not tested these hypotheses. One is that the patients were on prednisone, which could possibly change the myoinositol absorption. The other possibility is that, in the diabetics who had diabetes for 10 to 15 years, there might be a lesion in the kidney responsible, at least in part, for myoinositol intolerance, a lesion which was not present in the transplanted kidneys. I would be interested in Dr. Clements’ comments on this.