Cases reported here are 18 cases hospitalized in our Clinic from 1952 to date, of which 15 persons received transfusion of whole blood, 2 cases of plasma and 1 both of blood and plasma. The occurrence of jaundice was seen 26 to 198 days after the first transfusion and 34 to 219 days after the last.
Anorexia and fatigue were observed in most cases as symptoms in the preicteric stage, and the average duration was 4 days which is shorter than that in infectious hepatitis observed in our Clinic.
One case with a complication of bronchiectasis died 46 days after the onset of jaundice.
Duration of jaundice ranged from 20 to 90 days, the average being 34 days, which is not so different from that of infectious hepatitis.
The following chief characteristics were found in the function tests performed in its course.
Among serum reactions, thymol turbidity test showed a tendency to give positive results of long duration as compared with other reactions; cephalin cholesterol flocculation test had a tendency to show positive results in the early stage; Takata's reaction showed a tendency to give negative results earlier than other reactions. Santsol and hippuric acid tests had a tendency to show positive results while serum reactions were negative. It is also desirable to test urobilinogenuria, especially to perform its quantitative determination, and excretory function test by hepatosulphalein which gave a positive result for a long time.
Disturbances in the liver function by many tests were testified in all cases, and it is clinically noteworthy that some cases showed disturbances of the liver function even after the disappearance of jaundice, shifting to non-icteric chronic hepatitis.