Abstract
Since Locock 1 reported the successful use of bromides in several cases of epilepsy, this drug has been used extensively in the treatment of this disease. When these patients have been so treated, it has been noted that the concentration of the bromide ion in the blood is not always related to the amount of the drug administered; or is this concentration parallel to the clinical course, either in regard to the control of the convulsions or to the development of bromide intoxication.
Since the amount of bromide in the blood necessary to prevent epileptic convulsions in man varies, a determination of the concentration necessary to prevent experimentally produced convulsions in rabbits was made. The convulsions were induced by the intravenous injection of 2% thujone in 6% gum acacia, using 0.15 cc. per pound body weight. Seizures always followed such a dose, providing the injections were not repeated within one week. Rabbits were fed 5 grains of sodium bromide daily by stomach tube. When a blood bromide level of 240 mg. per 100 cc. of blood as measured by the Wuth 2 method was reached, injection of the thujone no longer produced a convulsion. In some animals a lower concentration sufficed to prevent induced seizures. (Table I.)
The total blood halide remained unchanged even when there was a 38% replacement (Table I) of the chlorides by the bromide; one may readily conclude that bromide replaces chloride, ion for ion.
To determine the site of action of the bromide, the amount in the brain was compared to that in the blood. The Berglund 3 method of analysis was used. The chloride content of the brain varied in rabbits, but the average was 166 mg. per 100 gm. of brain.
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