Influence of Sulfapyridine Therapy on Plasma Lipids in Pneumonia. ∗

Abstract

In the preceding paper 1 evidence has been presented to indicate that specific serum therapy is able to prevent the rather marked changes in the serum lipids which occur in pneumonia. The introduction of chemotherapy with its satisfactory clinical response brings up the question as to whether the more or less specific action of sulfapyridine in pneumococcal pneumonia has the same influence on the plasma lipids. Serum therapy and drug therapy both cause a rather prompt drop in temperature so that the patient is usually free of fever in 12 to 48 hours. However investigators have felt that the normal temperature which follows the administration of sulfapyridine does not necessarily indicate a complete recovery from the pneumonia. Just how the plasma lipids behave in cases receiving chemotherapy should therefore be of special interest.

This paper deals with a study including 5 children with pneumonia. The patients were between 6 and 9 years of age, all ill with lobar pneumonia due to the pneumococcus, Type I. They received sulfapyridine and since there were no hard and fast rules with regard to the amount of drug to be employed the dosage schedule recommended by Barnett and his co-workers 2 was at that time considered to be most satisfactory. The sulfapyridine was administered orally, 0.6 g being given every 4 hours throughout the 24 hours of a day. This group of selected patients did not have any vomiting prohibiting the retention of the drug. The first sample of blood was collected just before the sulfapyridine administration was started. Each child then had been ill for only one or 2 days and the fever was high, ranging between 40.2° and 40.8°C. The second sample was drawn about 24 hours after the temperature had dropped to normal.