Nitrogen and sulphur metabolism in morbus ceruleus

Abstract

In morbus ceruleus due to congenital cardiac defect there are found two conditions which suggest that in this disease the tissues are not so adequately furnished with oxygen as in health. These conditions are the abnormally high carbon dioxide content of the venous blood (Lepine) and the erythrocytosis, the latter being a direct response of the hemopoietic tissues to a lowered oxygen tension (Seller). It would seem plausible that in some severe cases the metabolism might be altered by the conditions mentioned. The case observed in this study was a child that presented all the features of morbus ceruleus due to congenital cardiac defect. Analyses of the urine failed to show anything abnormal in the nitrogen partition. The comparison of the amounts of neutral sulphur, wherein deficient oxidation would be most apt to be manifested, with the amounts of a normal child, shows very slightly higher figures but the difference is not sufficient to justify the conclusion of deficient oxidation.