Effect of Amytal Anesthesia on Glucose Tolerance.

Abstract

That amytal may have an effect on carbohydrate metabolism is indicated by the finding that dogs under amytal anesthesia exhibit a decreased capacity to assimilate injected glucose. 1 , 2 This problem can perhaps be more readily investigated by employing the “glucose tolerance test.” In our experiments this consisted in administering 2 gm. Pfanstiehl glucose per kilo body weight dissolved in 50 cc. water, followed by 100 cc. water. The changes in arterial (femoral) blood sugar were then followed at half hour intervals for 3 hours. In unanesthetized dogs the blood sugar rose to a maximum of some 300 mgm. within about one hour, and at the end of 3 hours had fallen to about 180 mgm.

Out of 5 dogs under amytal which were given sugar by means of a stomach tube, 3 showed no rise in blood sugar, and the other 2 showed a rise of only 10 mgm. In our experiments amytal per se produced no change in blood sugar (cf. Page, 3 Weiss 4 and others). One of these dogs was killed at the close of the test and the pyloric sphincter was found tightly closed, all the sugar still remaining in the stomach.

The abdomen of another amytalizecl dog was opened and sugar injected by syringe directly into the stomach. Again there was no rise in blood sugar during the following 3 hours, and again the sphincter was seen to be tightly closed. The stomach was emptied, washed out, and sugar now injected directly into the duodenum. This time there was a distinct rise in blood sugar, but the maximum reached was less than 2/3 the maximum when the test was tried on this same dog unanesthetized, and the blood sugar fell to normal before the end of the 3 hours.