Abstract
Administration of theophylline ethylenediamine intramuscularly to rabbits calls forth an acute and profuse diuresis. In an extensive physico-chemical study of the initiating events, as well as of the subsequent diuresis, it was found that a slight but constant rise in the whole blood chloride occurs relatively soon after the administration, and as a rule preced es the maximal diuresis. The resulting diuresis may exceed 50 times the normal urinary output. The specific electric conductivity of the urine and particularly the concentration of the urinary chloride rise, even throughout the periods of increasing and maximum diuresis. Consequently so much as one third the amount of the total blood chloride may be excreted within an hour. However, at the end of the hour the whole blood chloride is even higher than during the control preadministration period. It follows that during the hour chlorides pass rapidly from the tissues into the blood stream, and thence through the kidney into the urine.
A consideration of these findings, the rise in blood chloride and the profuse excretion of urinary chloride, led to a consideration of the importance of the chloride in the mechanism of the induced diuresis. Cohnheim 1 had found that chloride soon passes into sugar solutions injected intraperitoneally. The intraperitoneal injection of sugar solutions results in a fall in the blood chloride, since chloride leaves the blood stream and enters the artificial transudate up to a concentration of 0.4%. 2 Other electrolytes are likewise deviated from the blood stream, after the laws governing permeability.
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