Abstract
Recently it has been suggested 1 that failure of the liver to conjugate indol may lead to an excretion of that substance in the urine. It was therefore decided to investigate the probable value of the demonstration of indol in the urine as a method of determining the relative efficiency of liver function. In addition to a series of patients with clinical evidence of liver disease others showing marked signs of intestinal putrefaction were studied because it was felt that the large amounts of indol formed in such conditions might overtax the detoxifying power of the liver and so lead to the excretion of the unaltered compound in the urine. Simultaneously the question of the interference of indol with the usual test for urobilinogen was investigated; for if appreciable amounts of indol are excreted in the urine, positive tests with Ehrlich's reagent would be obtained which would be indistinguishable from the reaction given by urobilinogen.
In this investigation a sensitive qualitative method based upon the reaction between Ehrlich's benzaldehyde reagent and indol and upon the solubility of the latter compound in petroleum ether was used. Urine was treated with barium chloride to remove bilirubin, filtered and the filtrate tested with Ehrlich's reagent according to the technique of Wallace and Diamond. 2 If a positive reaction was found which might theoretically be due to indol, to urobilinogen, or to various other compounds, 3 cc. of petroleum ether were added to 15 cc. of the filtrate and the tube inverted several times. The ether layer was then removed with a pipette and tested with Ehrlich's reagent for the presence of indol.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.