Hæmoglobin metabolism in chronic infections

The destruction of transfused erythrocytes in anæmia

“…I n the chronic cases there was no evidence of abnormal hsmolysis, but in the acute cases the increased hzemolysis which we demonstrated was sufficient to account for the low erythrocyte count and the reticulocytosis. Vaughan and Saifi (1939) concluded from a study of the pigmont metabolism in infection that abnormal haemolysis was not the cause of the anaemia; our results show that this conclusion cannot be applied to all cases. SUMMARY 1.…”

The Anemia of Thermal Injury. I. Studies of Pigment Excretion 12

“…Others have pointed out the potentiality of increased osmotic fragility and plasma hemolysis (3,4) early in the post-burn period as well as agglutination and "sludging" of the red cells (5) Cartwright and his associates have presented several papers discussing some of the metabolic aspects of the anemia of chronic sepsis, and give data showing low serum iron, elevated serum copper and increased urinary coproporphyrin excretion (6). A few studies are available, notably those of Saifi and Vaughan (7,8), in which estimations of the urobilinogen excretion in the urine and feces in chronic sepsis have been made. In our experience bacterial contamination and growth on the burned area is always present after the first dressing of third degree bums.…”

Pigment Metabolism after Blood Transfusion

“…The total amount of fluid given was 540 c.cm. Faecal urobilinogen was estimated by the technique previously described (Vaughan and Saifi, 1939). Serum bilirubin was estimated by the method of King, Haslewood, and Delory (1937).…”

“…Again so long as the liver is efficient, urobilinogen does not appear in the urine. The presence, therefore, of methaemalbumin in the serum is an indication of extracellular haemolysis; an increase above normal of urobilinogen in the faeces is, if the liver is efficient, a measure, though not necessarily a quantitative one, of intracellular haemolysis (Vaughan and Saifi, 1939).…”