GASTRO-INTESTINAL STUDIES. VII. THE EXCRETION OF XYLOSE IN PERNICIOUS ANEMIA

Abstract

Since the advent of liver therapy in the treatment of pernicious anemia it has been known that some patients require greater amounts of potent material than others. Beebe and Lewis (1), and Fouts and Zerfas (2) have shown that patients with a higher incidence of complications, arteriosclerosis, and moderate to advanced involvement of the central nervous system, require on the average a greater daily amount of the active principle in the liver to keep the blood and color index near normal than do those not having these complications. The demonstration by Gansslen (3) and by Castle and Taylor (4), and the subsequent universal verification of their findings, that liver extract administered parenterally was many times more potent than liver extract given by mouth, led to the general acceptance of the theory that failure in absorption of the active principle from the gastro-intestinal tract accounts in the main for increases in the requirement of liver extract. Heath and Fullerton (5) have studied the rate of absorption of iodine and glycine in an attempt to develop a test for absorption. They concluded that the delay in appearance of iodine in saliva after the ingestion of 0.25 gram of potassium iodide is probably a rough measure of the absorptive ability of the upper small intestine.