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. 2020 Jun 21;12(6):1845. doi: 10.3390/nu12061845

Table 3.

Levels of plasma amino acids (µmol/L) and statistical analysis between combined group (CG = malnourished-MNA Group 1 + at risk of malnutrition-MNA Group 2) and normonourished-MNA Group 3 patients according to Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA).

Amino Acids CG
(N = 26)
MNA Group 3
(N = 28)
p Value
Aspartic acid 7.69 ± 3.83 8.86 ± 6.80 0.63
Glutamic acid 61.65 ± 17.64 68.68 ± 17.70 0.09
Histidine 67.92 ± 11.99 71.39 ± 14.14 0.16
Asparagine 39.62 ± 5.87 42.71 ± 6.51 0.10
Serine 98.27 ± 21.51 110.00 ± 48.16 0.39
Glutamine 504.42 ± 81.73 511.07 ± 82.65 0.67
3-methyl-histidine 3.53 ± 1.95 3.88 ± 1.30 0.37
Arginine 66.31 ± 22.10 63.79 ± 22.33 0.59
Citrulline 34.19 ± 9.09 35.32 ± 11.75 0.94
Glycine 242.65 ± 80.24 232.79 ± 81.78 0.47
Threonine 119.42 ± 26.99 118.07 ± 28.58 0.56
Alanine 356.23 ± 81.66 344.14 ± 74.21 0.64
Taurine 74.96 ± 43.53 64.39 ± 15.10 0.50
Tyrosine 53.85 ± 12.85 53.21 ± 12.47 0.92
Tryptophan 43.58 ± 10.72 46.11 ± 8.36 0.25
Phenylalanine 54.88 ± 15.89 53.11 ± 10.19 0.73
Isoleucine 55.15 ± 18.60 60.00 ± 14.70 0.30
Leucine 103.23 ± 31.54 116.79 ± 24.39 0.047
Lysine 202.58 ± 49.50 205.21 ± 28.65 0.48
Valine 201.30 ± 61.51 227.73 ± 47.55 0.047
TAAs 2400.22 ± 400.28 2446.96 ± 308.65 0.72
BCAAs 359.68 ± 110.39 404.52 ± 84.87 0.060
EAAs 851.60 ± 202.24 902.29 ± 145.03 0.17
EAAs/TAAs 0.35 ± 0.04 0.37 ± 0.02 0.023 ^
BCAAs/TAAs 0.15 ± 0.03 0.16 ± 0.02 0.009 ^
BCAAs/EAAs 0.42 ± 0.04 0.45 ± 0.03 0.002 ^

Data are expressed as mean values ± standard deviation. Reported p values are for between group comparisons (Kruskal–Wallis test). Only p values followed by the symbol ^ remained significant after control for false discovery rate. Abbreviations: MNA, mini nutritional assessment; TAAs, total amino acids; BCAAs, branched chain amino acids; EAAs, essential amino acids.