Abstract
It has been shown that there is a definite lowering of the levels for the plasma lipids at height of an acute infection as compared with the values obtained during convalescence. 1 There is, however, a tendency for the lipid content of the blood plasma to rise very slowly and to remain below the normal range during the period of recovery as long as any infection is still present. This condition of the plasma lipids during an illness in the child has been found to be quite similar to the changes which have been observed by Chaikoff and Kaplan in the blood lipids of depancreatized dogs maintained with insulin. 2 , 3
The depancreatized dogs developed a moderate decrease in blood fat, a small drop in the plasma phospholipid values, and a marked fall in the total cholesterol due almost entirely to a reduction in ester cholesterol to the point of disappearance from the blood in some of the animals. The free cholesterol content of the blood serum changed very little. When raw pancreas was included in all diets fed after pancreatectomy, a rise instead of a fall in the blood lipids occurred.
Therefore it was thought to be worth while to feed fresh raw whole beef pancreas to children harboring infections with relatively long febrile periods and demonstrating subnormal lipid values during these periods in order to determine if the glandular tissue was capable of favorably influencing the disturbed lipid metabolism so that a return to normal would occur in a short period of time.
Twelve children ranging in age from 6 to 15 years were chosen for this study. Six of the subjects had acute osteomyelitis; one, septic arthritis; 4, acute empyema of the pleural cavity; and one, empyema with peritonitis.
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