Characters of Harkness' plasma proteih equilibrium factor,
K(H), was discussed from theoretical point of view and the results were summarized as follows:
1. Harkness have taken into account for his
K(H) only three fractions, albumin (
A), total globulin (
G), and fibrinogen (
F). It was made clear, however, that
K(H) could be generalized to our
K, in which all fractions of plasma proteins were taken into consideration, and
K was dependent on only percent composition of plasma protein fractions, being defined as follows;
K=a
αn·
gαα·
gββ·
gγγ·
ffnwhere a
n+α+β+γ+
fn=a+
gα+
gβ+
gγ+
f=1 and 100a, 100
gα, etc. were percentage of
A-fraction, α-
G-fraction, etc., respectively, whose normal averages were expressed by a
n, α, etc., i. e. the set of exponent indices.
2. It was shown theoretically that
K or
K(H) was maximum for normal plasma, and its deviation from the normal value,
Kn, or
Kn(H), for pathological plasma always occured in the direction of diminution of the
K value. Effects of analytical errors in fractionation upon
K or
K(H) value were also discussed and Harkness' claim that
K(H) increased in initial stage of diseases, then decreased in later stage, was criticized.
3. In order to express the deviation of
K from
Kn, the author introduced a quantity,
Q, deviation factor of plasma protein equlibrium, which was given as follows:
Q=∑ (deviation of each fraction (%) from its normal value)×(its rate of deviation)
It was shown, then, that
K was a sort of geometrical mean with weighting factors of % composition of plasma protein fractions and
Q was proportional to its variance. It seemed therefore unnecessary to assume a dissociable complex protein as Harkness has done and the use of
Q, instead of
K, was more reasonable and more convenient to indicate a change in state of plasma protein composition.
4. The constitution of exponent indices in expression in
K, i. e. weighting factors for gemetrical mean, was discussed.
5. From the general aspects of multiple equilibrium systems, we concluded that
Q was an index of the deviation of qualitative equilibrium state of plasma protein from normal standard state, assuming quantitative and qualitative equilibrium between each fractions, the former of which was given by total amount of plasma proteins.
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