Urinary excretion of glucuronic and salicylic acids in normal and in rheumatic children.

Abstract

A STUDY of the excretion of glucuronic (also glycuronic) acid in the urine is generally connected with the study of the excretion of substances with a phenolic or alcoholic structure which are conjugated with glucuronic acid in the liver. This study, however, was undertaken for the following reason. It is generally recognized that the pathologic manifestations of the primary lesion in rheumatic fever are found in the collagenous connective tissues of the body. The connective tissues have within them "mucoid" which contains glucuronic acid¹and hyaluronic acid, a mucopolysaccharide composed of glucosamine and glucuronic acid in a proportion of 1: 1.²It was, therefore, thought that children with rheumatic fever might manifest some specific disturbance of glucuronic acid metabolism which could be detected by examination of the urine with and without the administration of acetylsalicylic acid, a compound which in part becomes conjugated with glucuronic acid. If this