Sulfate Retention in Dogs Following Bilateral Adrenal Extirpation.

The results of previous work by the senior writer 1 and his coworkers 2 on the functional significance of the suprarenal cortex, indicated that the cause of death in double operated cats and dogs is probably acid intoxication, due to retention of acids formed in the course of normal metabolism. The acidosis is apparently not due to the formation of abnormal acids within the organism, but due to defective elimination of non-volatile acids.

Study of the acid-base equilibrium of normal and bilaterally adrenalectomized cats showed quite clearly that the animals with marked symptoms of adrenal insufficiency were suffering from an uncompensated non-volatile acidosis. According to the data available, the acidosis was attributed to an increase in phosphoric and undetermined organic acids. However, it was evident that the marked fall in bicarbonate, observed in our double operated animals, was not occasioned to any considerable extent by the rise in inorganic phosphorus, which although marked, never exceeded two millimols, whereas the carbon-dioxide fell from 6 to 10 millimols. We stated that “increase in organic acid (which in our data included the sulfate ion) is the one change of sufficient magnitude to be responsible for the bicarbonate fall. Further efforts on our part to determine the nature of the organic acid or acids ended in failure, hence it was decided to test for sulfate retention, to see if the sulfate ion could be responsible for the observed changes.