Detection of ochratoxin A from the blood and urine of human patients suffering from nephropathy

Abstract

The authors determined the concentration of ochratoxin A (OTA) in 50 blood and 28 urine samples of human patients suffering from renal diseases (chronic glomerulo- and pyelonephritis, essential hypertension, renal cirrhosis, neoplastic and cystic changes) in Hungary. Forty-one out of the 50 serum samples assayed (82%) were found to contain OTA in a mean concentration of 0.33 ng/ml (range: 0.21–1.23 ng/ml). No significant differences were found in toxin content between the different age and sex groups studied. The proportion of the urine samples in which OTA could be detected (n=28) was 57%, the mean OTA concentration was 0.007 ng/ml (range: 0.006–0.012 ng/ml), and OTA concentration was lower than 0.01 ng/ml in the majority of samples. Incidence was much more common in female patients (86%), while 52% of the urine samples collected from male patients were negative. The OTA content of blood and urine samples did not differ significantly from the values measured in our earlier study in healthy humans and from the data reported in the literature. No significant correlation was found between the type of kidney disorders and the OTA content of blood and urine samples.