Abstract
Following the intravenous injection of phenolsulfonephthalein, its rate of disappearance from the blood was studied in normal animals and in those with experimentally produced renal pathology. A dosage of 0.5 mg. of dye per kilo of body weight was found most satisfactory. A striking difference in results was found to exist between normal dogs and normal rabbits. This is shown in the following table; the figures represent the concentration of dye in the blood serum at the stated time after injection, the percentages expressing that part of the total amount injected.
It is thus seen that immediately after injection, the sulfonephthalein is quickly concentrated in the kidney of the dog while this does not occur in the rabbit. This suggests the possibility of normally existing physiological differences in the renal mechanism of these animals.
Tests were carried out upon dogs with complete urinary obstruction, produced by ligating both ureters. The first day after operation the concentrations reached in the serum by the sulfonephthalein were only slightly higher than normal, becoming successively higher in tests performed each following day up to the time of death, so that in urinary obstruction where excretion tests could not be made, a study of the sulfonephthalein in the blood serum gave an index as to the conditions of the kidneys.
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