[Urinary excretion of hydroxyproline by patients with multiple sclerosis]

Total urinary hydroxyproline was determined 79 times by the Prockop-Udenfried method in 61 patients with multiple sclerosis. All patients had the pyramidal syndrome. Depending on the intensity of paresis at the time of the study the patients were divided into two groups: Group I--patients with slight paresis. Group II--patients with major paresis or paralysis. The control group comprised 45 healthy subjects. The mean urinary hydroxyproline excretion was in both groups as a whole and in each group separately not different significantly from that in the control group. The values of hydroxyproline excretion depended on the duration of paresis, and were highest in both groups 2 weeks to 1 year after the onset of paresis, and then they decreased in two successive time periods: 1-5 and 5-17 years of the disease. The values of hydroxyproline excretion were significantly above the control level only in patients with severe paresis or paralysis of up to 1 year duration, and might have been due to increased catabolism of collagen in the bones of the paralysed extremities in the period of the so called acute osteoporosis.