Effect of Liver Extract on Basal Metabolic Rate in Pernicious Anemia.

Abstract

The following observations were made in an effort to determine whether or not the basal metabolic rate would be affected by the rapid increase in erythrocytes after the administration of liver extract. We selected 2 female patients with uncomplicated pernicious anemia, neither of whom had had liver or liver extract. Each patient received 8 cc. of dilute hydrochloric acid daily. They were given general hospital diet for 36 days and high caloric general diet for 67 days, the total period of observation being 103 days. Liver extract was begun after a control period of 8 days. The following determinations were made daily for 34 days, once during the sixth week and triweekly thereafter. One patient received Armour's liver extract (1 1/2 ounces daily), the other received Lilly's liver extract (3 vials daily). The parallelism in the results was striking. The basal metabolic rate remained remarkably constant throughout the reticulocyte crises. In one patient the B.M.R. was found to be between +13 and + 14% for 2 days at the beginning of the crisis, but all other readings were between +10% and −10% with no general tendency toward an elevation during the crisis. The most marked increase in basal metabolic rate occurred on the fortieth day after a lapse of a week during which no estimations were made. One of the patients was found to have an increased basal metabolic rate again on the fifty-third day. We see no special significance in these occasional increases in metabolic rate.