GALACTITOL has recently been isolated from the urine1 and brain2 of galactosemia patients. Subsequently the conversion of orally administered galactose- 1-C14 into galactitol-1-C14 by a 17-year-old male galactosemia patient was demonstrated.3 In order to account for the relatively slow excretion of administered radioactivity as galactitol-C14 it was suggested that there had either been deposition of galactitol in tissues of the body, or that the administered galactose-C14 had been incorporated into galactose-containing compounds. This hypothesis was further supported by the finding of galactitol in a variety of tissues in a rat fed large amounts of galactose.4 We now wish to report the galactitol, glucose, free, and phosphatide-bound myo-inositol content of body tissue from 17 areas of an infant presumed to be galactosemic.
Material and Methods
The patient studied was a 23-day-old male infant who was jaundiced on the third day of life.