Effect of Acute Infection on Iodine Number of the Phospholipid Fatty Acids. ∗

Abstract

There is a definite lowering of the values for the plasma lipids at the height of an acute infection as compared with the levels obtained during convalescence. 1 Fever per se is not responsible for the fall of the various lipid constituents of the blood plasma. Diet does not have any demonstrable influence on the results. The drop in the total cholesterol values is due almost entirely to a marked decrease in the ester cholesterol 2 and this condition holds true for infants as well as children. 3 The fall in the total fatty acid values is accompanied by low iodine absorption values yielding iodine numbers of the serum fatty acids which are significantly lower during the febrile period of the disease than during the afebrile period of convalescence. 4-5 The plasma phospholipids do not in all cases drop immediately to low levels after the onset of the acute illness. In some instances, values above the normal range have been obtained early in the disease. The behavior of the phospholipid fatty acids in relationship to the variations in the phospholipids in acute infections of children has not been recorded.

Eighteen children ranging in age from 13 months to 15 years were chosen for this study. Nine of the subjects had upper respiratory infections with acute otitis media, acute bronchitis, or cervical adenitis, while the remaining 9 had pneumonia with no complications. All the blood samples obtained during and after the height of each infection were drawn between 12 and 16 hours after a meal. The first blood sample was collected in 8 of the cases before the end of the second day of the febrile period of the disease and in the remaining 10 patients between the sixth and seventh day of the illness.