Abstract
Summary
Cyanide markedly inhibits the serum alkaline phosphatase of normal human subjects and the increased levels of patients with obstructive jaundice and skeletal diseases; no essenital differences were observed in these 3 categories. The evidence is consistent with the view that in all 3 categories the largest proportion of serum alkaline phosphatase is of osseous origin since bone phosphatase is inhibited by cyanide (Cloetens phosphatase II) and liver phosphatases are, for the most part, cyanide-insensitive (Cloe-tens? phosphatase I). The data indicate that the rise in serum alkaline phosphatase in obstructive jaundice cannot be of hepatic origin but they are compatible with retention of serum alkaline phosphatase due to obstruction of the excretory biliary channels.
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