STUDIES ON ARTHRITIS IN THE ARMY BASED ON FOUR HUNDRED CASES

Abstract

In previous communications1 evidence was advanced to show that there is no disturbance of the fasting level of the blood urea or non- protein nitrogen in cases of chronic arthritis.It was believed impor- tant, however, in studying the present relatively large group to include consideration of these factors in order further to substantiate or disprove these findings.Accordingly, determinations of blood nitrogen and urea were conducted in a series of seventeen cases.The blood samples were collected in the morning before the patient received his breakfast.Nonprotein nitrogen was determined by the direct ness- lerization method of Folin and Denis2 and blood urea by the method of Van Slyke and Cullen.3The figures herewith appended show that all cases, including those of the most severe type, fall well within normal limits.These observations were further supported by inde- pendent determination by Lieut.Thomas E. Buckman, M.C., on the blood nitrogen made in connection with studies on creatin and crea- tinin (see section devoted to this subject) using ten patients of the present series as well as many other patients, a total of fifty.In a series then of sixty-seven observations in fifty-seven cases of chronic arthritis the fasting blood nitrogen fell within normal limits in all but two cases.One of these patients was a man, aged 46 years, with cirrhosis of the liver and renal calculus, who gave 45.4 mg. of nitrogen per hundred c.c. of blood.The other patient was a man, aged 21 years, with a chronic arthritis of one knee, who gave 38.5 mg.There was no other evident disturbance of his health.