Table 2. Patient Profile.

no. of obs	patient	gender	age (years) at time of diagnosis	diagnosis	procedure/operation	days prior to eatinga	serum SA (μmol/L) median (range)	lowest urine (SA + SU, μmol/24 h, median)
15	1	male	39	ulcerative colitis with toxic megacolon	total colectomy with ileostomy	2	0.0624 (0.054−0.082)	0.368
6	2	female	59	second colon cancer with multiple polyps	panproctocolectomy	3	0.037 (0.013−0.074)	0.470
12	3	female	68	carcinoma of rectum	abdomino-perineal resection	5	0.045 (0.012−0.132)	7.707
11	4	male	47	carcinoma of colon	extended r. hemicolectomy	2	0.074 (0.061−0.088)	0.288
4	5	female	64	carcinoma of rectum	low ant. resection of rectum	2	0.34 (0.079−0.847)	1.01
3	6	male	66	carcinoma of rectum + second cancer in cecum	panproctocolectomy with ileostomy	2	0.103 (0.063−0.174)	1.84

^aPatients were either fasting or receiving parenteral nutrition with no salicylic acid content (confirmed by assay).