Increased excretion of urinary glycosaminoglycans in meningococcal septicemia and their relationship to proteinuria

Abstract

The capillary leak in meningococcal disease is associated with increased plasma and urine concentrations of GAGs, which may be proteolytically cleaved from endothelial and basement membrane sites. The correlation between the severity of protein leakage and the urine excretion of GAGs suggests that loss of GAGs may be causally related to the increase in permeability to proteins.