Abstract
It has been noted by many early observers, among them Wright, 1 that the coagulation time of blood was decreased after meals. Schreiber 2 and Kehr 3 suggested the preoperative and postoperative use of intravenous glucose in obstructive jaundice, but it was not used extensively until Crile and Walters advocated it 5 years later. Partos and Svec 4 pointed out that a relation existed between the sugar content and coagulability of the blood, namely, that with increasing blood sugar the clotting time is reduced. They demonstrated this effect following the injection of various substances which produce a hyperglycemia, e. g., glucose, epinephrine, theobromine sodium salicylate and morphine. Ravdin 5 presented a series of experiments in which he attempted to justify the use of intravenous glucose in cases having lesions of the biliary apparatus and who were poor operative risks.
In determining coagulation time we used 2 methods simultaneously in all cases, (1) that of Lee and White 6 and (2) a modification of the method of Wright 7 (using pieces of glass tubing 40 mm. long and 2 mm. internal diameter). Tests for coagulation were made every half minute. The two methods usually checked within one-half minute; often the results were identical; occasionally a minute's difference was observed, especially in cases where the coagulation time was very long, as in the jaundiced animal. Serum calcium determinations were made by the method of Kramer and Tisdall. 8 , 9 Blood sugars were determined, using the Folin-Wu technique. 10 Serum bilirubin was determined by Thannhauser and Anderson's modification of van den Bergh's method. All experiments were done on dogs fasted over night.
Both normal and jaundiced dogs were used.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.