Radioactive albumin was infused proximally into a leg lymphatic of dogs at a constant rate, thoracic duct lymph and blood were sampled for 150 minutes and the radioactive albumin in these fluids determined. The infused albumin returns to the circulation primarily by the thoracic duct. Less than 3% of the infused albumin reaches the circulation by routes other than the thoracic duct except in unusual cases of right and left thoracic duct anastomoses. Lymph nodes do not phagocytize the serum albumin passing through them and exchange of albumin between lymph and blood in lymph nodes is quantitatively insignificant.
SUMMARYSix normal human volunteers as renal transplant donors were given 33H-digoxin before and again after unilateral nephrectomy. The serum digoxin concentration was modestly increased following nephrectomy, the serum digoxin half-time was slightly prolonged, and total digoxin excretion for the group was reduced by only 6.4% during a 7-day study. Four of the six patients studied before and after unilateral nephrectomy exhibited no important reduction in digoxin excretion after nephrectomy; two patients excreted only 66% and 64% as much of the administered dose of digoxin as they had excreted compared to the control study. Renal transplant donors digoxin by the transplanted human kidney is directly proportional to the functional status of the transplant.9 The purpose of this study was to determine the renal excretion, serum levels, and turnover rates of tritiated digoxin in normal subjects before and after unilateral nephrectomy, and thus provide additional clarifying data in regard to the apparent interrelationship between existing renal function and urinary excretion of digoxin.
MethodsSix human subjects who were to undergo nephrectomy as donors for renal transplantation were studied before and after nephrectomy. Preoperative evaluation revealed these patients to be normal in every respect. Tritiated digoxin was prepared by the Wilzbach hydrogen exchange method; it possessed a specific activity of 125 ,uc/ mg and was sterile and chemically and radio-555 Downloaded from http://ahajournals.org by on April 30, 2019
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