was excreted in the urine. Over 98.5 h after ingestion, the
concentrations of both D-GLUF and L-GLUF were below the
detection limit (5 ng/ml in a specimen8)). Finally, the total excretion
of D-GLUF by 26.5 h was 95.9% and that of L-GLUF,
96.3%, and these figures correspond well with the 97% total
urinary excretion of DL-GLUF reported in an analysis of both
enantiomers by Hirose et al.5) for the first 24 h after BASTA
ingestion. A question that arises is, what happened to the LGLUF
that was not recovered from the urine, although the
same amount was absorbed from the digestive tract? In the
rat, DL-GLUF is slightly metabolized to DL-3-methylphosphinicopropionic
acid (MPPA)1); and we have confirmed the
presence of MPPA in the serum of a patient who ingested
BASTA fluid.9) It may be that L-GLUF is involved in the metabolism
to MPPA. Alternatively, an idiosyncratic distribution
of L-GLUF to certain tissues may be occurring.
In order to ascertain whether the patient had any encephalitis,
we collected cerebrospinal fluid from him 27 h