HELP! High Glutamine Levels, but ammonia is normal????

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone!

I was wondering if you all could help me with figuring this out. My son tested

high in alanine, glutamine, histadine,lysine, taurine and tyrosine on the first

set of blood tests he had. Now, I must mention that I have NOT been

supplementing with any of these things. Hyperammonemia was suspected, so we

repeated the amino acid tests as well as testing for ammonia. This time, we did

a fasting blood test. My son was still high in glutamine, but normal in all the

others that he was previously high in. This time, however, valine was low and

the ammonia test showed that he was within the " normal " reference range. He was

13 on ammonia and the ref. range was 0-40. His liver testing (AST) was also

normal.

I thought for sure that the ammonia was going to be elevated since the glutamine

was elevated. What could possibly be causing the increase in glutamine without

the increase in ammonia?

A little background about my son. He is 6 years old and was diagnosed with

autism when he was 3. He has had absence type seizures since he was 4. When we

put him on the GFCF diet, his seizures worsened. No anticonvulsant has been able

to get rid of the absence seizures. In fact, the medications all made his

condition WORSE. He is a carb addict and avoids protein at all costs (with the

exception of Chicken McNuggets from Mc's) Considering his reaction to the

meds and the GFCF diet, I was thinking that maybe he is having some issues

metabolizing proteins. What confuses me, is the fact that in spite of the

elevated glutamine, his ammonia levels are on the lower side.

Any thoughts? Any further testing that I should be asking for? Any enzymes that

would possibly help my son?

Thanks,