A comparison of the effects of glucose and of meat administration upon the non-protein blood nitrogen and the duration of life in experimental renal insufficiency

The following study was undertaken to determine (1) whether those dietary factors that tend to increase the non-protein blood nitrogen in acute insufficiency also tend to shorten the duration of life, and (2) the value of glucose in prolonging life in acute renal insufficiency. The method adopted was to observe the daily curve of non-protein blood nitrogen and the duration of life after complete renal insufficiency had been induced by bilateral ureteral ligation in a series of dogs; half the animals being given glucose, the other half, meat.

Six dogs were divided into two groups of three each. One group was fed upon beef heart, the other upon glucose dissolved in water. On the third day, 5 c.c. of blood was taken from the jugular vein for estimation of the total non-protein nitrogen by the Folin method, and immediately thereafter each dog was etherized and both ureters ligated. On the following day, blood was again taken in the same manner and the diet resumed as before operation. Every day thereafter blood was taken before feeding. When the stomach became unretentive, the glucose dogs were given ten per cent. solution of dextrose in distilled water intraperitoneally. The meat dogs when they refused the meat were allowed water as desired.

At autopsy, all the ureters were found satisfactorily ligated, the pelvis of the kidney was filled but not materially distended and there was no evidence of infection. In the animals receiving glucose solution intraperitoneally, there was no evidence grossly of free fluid in the peritoneal cavity.

The following facts were noted. After forty-eight hours on the diets, but before ureteral ligation, the blood nitrogen of the two groups was the same. The day after operation, neither meat nor glucose having been given the day of the operation, the blood nitrogen in both groups was almost the same, possibly a little lower in the glucose group; the loss of weight at this time was the same in the two groups.