Colloid Osmotic Pressures of Serum Proteins

The albumin component is, by reason of size and net charge and concentration, chiefly responsible for plasmas osmotic activity ( 1) .2 The validity of Starling's hypothesis in the dynamics of water balance in conditions associated with hypoproteinemia has been the subject of considerable recent discussion. The basic experimental problems involved have been considered by some of us in other publications (2, 3) and by many other authors (4-11). The present senior authors, at first separately and now in collaboration, have had the problem of the relation of edema to serum colloid osmotic pressure under experimental observation in a wide variety of clinical situations. We have constantly faced the question: Do we have to measure colloid osmotic pressures, or can we predict from total protein and protein distribution data (usually readily available on metabolic ward patients) with sufficient accuracy to suit our thinking? For although many recent workers have made direct measurements, a certain amount of think-