Postmortem Biochemical Studies of Various Organs in a Series of Conditions with Special Reference to “Ekiri” I Water content of various organs II Liver lipid and methionine
1959 Volume 32 Issue 11 Pages 799-811
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1959 Volume 32 Issue 11 Pages 799-811
Abnormal water distribution and fatty liver have been pointed out as the most important findings of “ekiri”. Quantitative investigations, however, have been never carried out either on the water content of various organs or the lipid content of liver despite the clinical evidence of dehydration, the striking brain edema and enormous fatty liver encountered in autopsy of “ekiri”. The water content of various organs and the content of neutral lipid, the major constituent of fatty liver were measured by the author. Furthermore, the liver methionine, so called lipotropic substance, under a series of conditions divided into infectious and non-infectious diseases was quantitatively analized in order to: study the mechanism of fatty liver.
The results were as follows:
1) The water content was reduced in “ekiri” in muscle and skin, especially in thelatter, forming a striking contrast to it's marked increase in brain.
The children of 2 to 6 years of age demonstrated the greatest rise of water content of brain, whereas those of one year showed no such tendency.
When fluid is given intravenously to the “ekiri” patients, the dehydrated parts of body became normal, but edema was still more exaggerated in the already edematous parts of body, which could be, however, avoided to a certain degree by the simultaneous use of adrenocortical hormone.
2) The great majority of “ekiri” cases demonstrated a marked increase of liver lipid, and other infectious diseases showed a tendency to a slight increase. Lipid content was not elevated in none of the non-infectious diseases investigated except one case of acute phosphorus poisoning with the most intense fatty liver.3) The free as well as the total methionine were reduced in the liver of “ekiri” cases, but not at all in the liver of acute phosphorus poisoning, suggesting different mechanisms of fatty liver in these two conditions.
