The metabolic effects of aspirin in fasting and fed subjects: relevance to the aetiology of Reye's syndrome.

As a possible model for the mechanism of precipitation of Reye's Syndrome in children the metabolic effects of oral aspirin were studied in normal subjects in the fasted and fed states, to determine whether aspirin altered fatty acid oxidation. Starvation increased blood 3-hydroxybutyrate concentrations, but aspirin had no effect on this or other metabolite concentrations in either the fasted or fed states.