The effect of sodium amytal on the passage of sugar from arterial blood into tissues of the hind limb and brain

Abstract

The transfer of sugar from the blood into the limb tissues was shown to increase when either of two anesthetics was administered; this was due to a raised blood sugar level. When the blood sugar level rises, its transfer into the limb tissues is more marked in healthy nonanesthetized animals than in those under ether; it is also greater in animals under ether anesthesia from whom the pancreas has been removed than in similarly operated nonanesthetized dogs. Prolonged amytal anesthesia has no effect on the blood sugar level or on its normal transfer into the limb tissues. In the case of toxic symptoms which include a reduced rate of respiration and a lowered rectal temperature and which result from amytal anesthesia, the transfer of sugar into the limb tissues is reduced. Prolonged amytal anesthesia not only does not prevent the extraction of sugar from the blood by the brain but even increases it (in comparison with the amount of sugar transferred to the brain of nonanesthetized animals). In animals, sugar extraction by the brain is markedly decreased or completely arrested during the toxic action of sodium amytal.