Natural adrenal cortex extract and coagulation of blood

Abstract

1. 1. Correlation of Table I shows a definitely favorable effect on the coagulation of blood following the administration of adrenal cortex extract to surgical patients. The reaction was present in 98 per cent of the cases taken from records in the order which they appeared. The average reduction in time for the fifty cases reported was 29.44 per cent. This group was sufficiently ill to warrant surgical procedures. 2. 2. Table II shows a favorable effect in reducing coagulation time in the so-called normal individual. The average maximum reduction of time for the ten subjects was 38.4 per cent. The maximum reduction of time was reached at two hours after intra-muscular injection of the extract. The difference in reaction being very small during the period from one to three hours after injection shows this period to be the best for surgery. It further shows that the reaction to the extract is prolonged for a period of over twenty-four hours; in this group there was a net reduction of 19.2 per cent at the end of the twenty-four hour period. 3. 3. A review of the modus operandi of coagulation and present accepted theories regarding it reveals three distinct manners in which cortical secretion or extract may produce this result: (a) by increasing the normal activity of the calcium ions of blood plasma; (b) by stimulation of liver cell activity with increased fibrinogen formation in the blood serum; and (c) by controlling the serum potassium levels at or near normal, and thus allowing the other two coagulation factors to act normally. 4. 4. Citation of the extremely high calcium content of the plasma in a case of hyperparathyroidism with hyperthyroidism shows what may be expected in cases with a lowered fibrinogen content from lack of normal liver cell activity even though the calcium content be very high. The high calcium values were of no use to the body when liver function was impaired due to toxicity. 5. 5. This work has now been in progress for over four years and covers a total of several hundred cases. During this time there has been no sign of embolism or thrombosis, as might have been expected, from lowering of the coagulation time. 6. 6. It is hoped that through the recording of these facts, with citation of possible sequences producing the phenomenon, biochemic research may be stimulated which will reveal the true reactions taking place and producing a reduction of coagulation time by adrenal cortex extract or secretion.