Abstract
The observation was made that dogs acutely intoxicated by ethyl alcohol in a certain number of experiments showed an increase over the normal in the elimination of phenolsulphonephthalein by the kidneys. 1 Such an increase was transitory, developing within 3 hours after the use of the alcohol and decreasing if the alcohol was withheld from 48 to 72 hours. The increase in the output of phenolsulphonephthalein by this group of dogs was associated with an edema and fatty infiltration of the liver lobules which commenced at their periphery and involved from one-half to two-thirds of their substance. The conclusion was made that the increase in the elimination of this dye was due to the liver failing to destroy a portion of it which would increase the amount available for elimination by the kidney. Similar observations have been made by Hanner and Whipple 2 on the relationship between a liver necrosis induced by chloroform and an increase in the elimination of this dye.
In the present preliminary study 12 dogs have been employed to ascertain the relationship, if any, during an acute liver injury from alcohol between the percentage retention and rate of disappearance from the plasma of phenoltetrachlorphthalein and the percentage elimination of phenolsulphonephthalein by the kidneys. Four of the animals were not given alcohol. These serve as controls. The dogs were starved for 2 days. No restriction was made on the water intake. The control dogs were then lightly anesthetized by a morphine-ether anesthesia and liver tissue removed for histological study. The remaining 8 animals were given 10 to 15 cc. of a 40% solution of ethyl alcohol by stomach tube and kept in a state of semialcoholic anesthesia by repeating the alcohol for 12 hours.
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