2-Hydroxyisocaproic acid (aka Leucic acid / α-hydroxyisocaproic acid / HICA) is a metabolite of the branched-chain amino acid leucine. Leucine plays a significant role in the synthesis of muscle protein.
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
2-Hydroxyisocaproic acid (aka Leucic acid / α-hydroxyisocaproic acid / HICA) is a metabolite of the branched-chain amino acid leucine.
Moderate increase may result from:
- Lactic acidosis - Lactic acidosis is a form of metabolic acidosis that begins when a person overproduces or underutilizes lactic acid, and their body is not able to adjust to these changes. People with lactic acidosis have problems with their liver (and sometimes their kidneys) being able to remove excess acid from their body.
- Episodic ketosis - when you go on a very high protein, severely carbohydrate-restricted diet. Your body becomes starved for glucose. Ketosis is your body's way of making up for this lack of fuel. Ketosis increases acids in your bloodstream. Episodic ketosis can lead to kidney damage and increase risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Deficiencies of the vitamins B1 (thiamine) or lipoic acid.
Potential treatment options:
People with slight to moderate elevations may use dietary supplements containing thiamine to improve clinical symptoms.
Elevated 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid in urine has also been linked to short bowel syndrome. It may also be an indicator of oxidative stress.
Significant elevations are associated with:
- Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). MSUD is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder affecting branched-chain amino acids. It is one type of organic acidemia. The condition gets its name from the distinctive sweet odor of affected infants' urine, particularly prior to diagnosis, and during times of acute illness.
- Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency. Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency (PDHD) is a rare neurometabolic disorder characterized by a wide range of clinical signs with metabolic and neurological components of varying severity. Manifestations range from often fatal, severe, neonatal lactic acidosis to later-onset neurological disorders.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get StartedMonthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
2-Decenedioic Acid, 2-ET-3-OH-Propionic, 2-Hydroxyadipic, 2-Hydroxybutyric, 2-Hydroxyglutaric, 2-Hydroxyisocaproic, 2-Hydroxyisovaleric, 2-Methyl, 3-Hydroxybutyric, 2-Methylacetoacetic, 2-Methylbutrylglycine, 2-Methylglutaconic Acid, 2-Octenedioic acid, 2-Octenoic Acid, 2-OH-3ME-Valeric, 2-Oxo-3-methylvaleric, 2-OXO-Butyric Acid, 2-OXOADIPIC, 2-Oxoglutaric, 2-Oxoisocaproic, 2-Oxoisovaleric, 2OH-Phenylacetic Acid, 3-Hydroxyadipic, 3-Hydroxybutyric, 3-Hydroxyglutaric, 3-Hydroxyisobutyric, 3-Hydroxyisovaleric, 3-Hydroxypropionic, 3-Hydroxysebacic, 3-Hydroxyvaleric, 3-Methylcrotonylglycine, 3-Methylglutaconic, 3-Methylglutaric, 3-OH-3-Methylglutaric, 30H-ISOVALERIC ACID, 3OH-2-Methylvaleric Acid, 3OH-Dodecanedioic Acid, 3OH-Dodecanoic Acid, 4 HYDROXYCYCLOHEX- ANEACETIC, 4-Hydroxphenyllactic, 4-Hydroxybutyric, 4-Hydroxyphenylacetic, 4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvic, 4OH-Phenylpropionic Acid, 5-HIAA, 5-Oxoproline, 5OH-Hexanoic Acid, Acetoacetic, Aconitic, Ur, Adipic, Butyrylglycine, Citric, Crotonylglycine, Decadienedioic, Dodecanedioic, Ethylmalonic, Fumaric, Glutaconic, Glutaric, Glyceric Acid, Hexanoylglycine, Homogentisic, HOMOVANILLIC ACID, Isobutyrylglycine, Isocitric, Isovaleryglycine, Lactic, Lactic Acid, Malic, Malonic, Methylcitric, Methylmalonic, Methylsuccinic, Mevalonolactone, N ACETYLASPARTIC, N-AcetylTyrosine, N-Valerylglycine, Octanoic, Orotic, Phenylacetic, Phenyllactic, Phenylpropionylglycine, Phenylpyruvic, Propionylglycine, Pyruvic, Sebacic, Suberic, Suberylglycine, Succinic, Succinylacetone, Thymine, Tiglylglycine, Trans-Cinnamoylglycine, Uracil, VMA