Fixed base in gastric juice.

Abstract

The authors in a study of the effects of pyloric obstruction in rabbits 1 noted a large loss of fixed base as well as of chloride ion into the stomach. Gamble and Ross 2 found sodium in vomited stomach secretions from a dog, following experimental obstruction of the pylorus, to the extent of about one-half the equivalence of the chloride ion loss. The experiments to be here reported were undertaken for the purpose of determining whether or not fixed base is contained to an appreciable extent in gastric juice produced under conditions permitting normal gastric function. So far as we are aware the only published measurements of fixed base in gastric juice are those of Rosemann. 3 These were obtained from two large samples collected from dogs by the “sham feeding” method of Pawlow. The average amount of fixed base found in this “hunger juice” was 20 cc. 0.1 N per 100 cc., and of this approximately 11 cc 0.1 N was sodium and 9 cc. 0.1 N potassium. The chloride ion content of the samples was in average 147 cc. 0.1 N. The secretion of an alkaline juice by the mucosa of the pyloric antrum was noted by early workers and has recently been confirmed by several investigators. 4 , 5 No measurements of fixed base in this secretion have been reported.

In this study gastric secretions were obtained from isolated pouches constructed in the fundic and pyloric regions of the stomach. These pouches were provided with external fistulae but were found to retain the secretions entering them until removed by catheterization. In the table are given data obtained from samples of juice withdrawn from a pouch in the fundus at intervals following ingestion of high protein food (meat or fish) and of low protein food (cereal and cream or bread and water).