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I. LOW BLOOD DIASTASE AS AN INDEX OF IMPAIRED HEPATIC. FUNCTION

S. H. GRAY, M.D.; J. G. PROBSTEIN, M.D.; CARL J. HEIFETZ, M.D.

Arch Intern Med. 1941;67(4):805-818.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In other communications from this laboratory the normal diastase values¹ and the significance of elevated blood diastase² were discussed. The accurate assay of subnormal amounts of diastase afforded by the Somogyi technic³ revealed that subnormal diastase values were far more frequent than were increased values. In preliminary reports⁴ it was pointed out that low blood diastase values seemed to be indicative of impaired hepatic function. Analysis of the considerable material that we have accumulated, which forms the basis of this study, supports this early interpretation. Other investigators using the Somogyi technic have corroborated this concept.⁵

We are unable as yet to offer any valid explanation of the decrease in blood diastase associated with impaired hepatic function. If diastase were found in the liver, one could assume that the production of the enzyme is one of the functions impaired when the liver is affected. But, as . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
ST. LOUIS

From the laboratory and the Department of Surgery, Jewish Hospital, and the Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Aided by the David May-Florence G. May Fund.