Abstract
The complicated interrelationship between blood coagulability and its content of calcium and sugar has been the field for much study. Therapy of jaundice by the administration of calcium was popularized by the publications of Walters. 1 Attempts to give these procedures a scientific basis have not always been successful. However, the observations of many clinicians have shown beyond doubt that intravenous injections of calcium chloride are of definite value. More recently the older views have been revived and glucose both by feeding and by injection has become a favorite method of therapy. The experiments of Ravdin 2 have established the fact that raising the sugar level in the blood is of far more importance in increasing the coagulability than raising the calcium content and this procedure has many enthusiastic advocates.
Wright and Cowan 3 in a recent communication have established the fact that injection of sugar in both normal and jaundiced dogs produces a significant rise in the blood calcium and that this rise persists after the blood sugar has returned to normal levels and that the coagulability of the blood parallels the calcium level and not the sugar curve. With these points in view it was decided to ascertain the effect on the blood sugar level of calcium injection and as can be seen from the accompanying table the rise in blood sugar after calcium injection is nearly as marked as after injecting sugar itself and tends to last longer. The average rise in blood sugar is 62 mg. per 100 cc. or about 70%.
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