Influence of Sulfathiazole Therapy on Plasma Lipids in Pneumonia. ∗

Abstract

Previous investigations 1 , 2 by the author have shown that during the febrile periods of acute infections such as pneumonia, there is a definite fall in the values for total and ester cholesterol, total fatty acids and phospholipids. The iodine numbers of the total fatty acids and of the phospholipid fatty acids also are lowered.

Further studies 3 , 4 have revealed the interesting fact that the early administration of specific serum for pneumonia in children leads to a critical drop in the fever with rapid recovery which prevents the development of any significant changes in the levels of the plasma lipids. On the other hand, chemotherapy with sulfapyridine also causes a fall in the fever with improvement in the patient's condition but with little or no influence on the lipids of the serum which continue to undergo changes similar to those found in untreated cases of pneumonia. This latter observation raises the question as to whether the response to all forms of chemotherapy is the same. Sulfathiazole, the thiazole analogue of sulfapyridine, was therefore investigated.

Six children ranging in age from 6 to 13 years were selected. All of the subjects were ill with pneumonia due to the pneumococcus. They received 0.3 g per kg of body weight per day of sulfathiazole for the first 48 hours after admission to the hospital and 0.15 g thereafter. The drug was administered orally every 4 hours, 6 times per day. It was well tolerated by all of the children. The first sample of blood for lipid determinations was obtained just before the sulfathiazole was started. At this time each child had been ill from one to 2 days and the fever was high, ranging between 39.5 and 40.4°C.