Since sulfanilamide when given to dogs has been recovered in all organs in concentrations proportional to the water contents thereof, it has been suggested that this drug might offer a convenient means of estimating total body water. A method which involves the same principles as those employed in the dye technic for estimation of plasma volume has been used to estimate the total body water in dogs. The results indicated that sulfanilamide was dissolved in approximately the same amount of water as urea, which was administered simultaneously; and, since urea is known to be distributed uniformly in body water, the sulfanilamide method seemed applicable for dogs. In expectation that this method might apply to man as well as dogs, the following experiments were carried out. These were done in the hope that the acetylation of sulfanilamide, a process which, although absent in dogs, is normally present in man,, might not interfere with the determination. Four subjects in basal conditions received an intravenous injection of 40 cc of a 700 mg % solution of sulfanilamide in 0.85% saline. Two additional subjects received intravenous injections of 100 cc of a 100 mg % solution of acetylsulfanilamide. Samples of blood for control determinations were taken before the injection, and subsequent samples were taken in bottles containing the appropriate amount of potassium oxalate (2 mg per cc of whole blood) at varying intervals following the injection. The whole blood was analyzed for both free and total sulfanilamide by the revised method of Marshall, and the final color reaction was read on an Evelyn Photoelectric colorimeter. The resulting figures showed that in 3 of the 4 subjects who received sulfanilamide there were gross irregularities in the disappearance curves due to a 10 to 30% rise in the concentration of the total sulfanilamide in the blood occurring from 1 1/2 to 6 hours after the injection.
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