Chemical tests for ketonuria.

Variations in the concentration of taurine have been noted by several workers during chromatographic investigation of urinary amino-acids (Kay and Entenman, 1954; Souchon and Grunau, 1952; Ishihara, Komori, and lida, 1951 ; Nardi, 1954; Beerstecher, Sutton, Berry, Brown, Reed, Rich, Berry, and Williams, 1950). Taurine is present in high concentration in liver (Tallan, 1954), and it is in the liver that taurine is conjugated with cholic acid to form taurocholate. It might be expected, therefore, that pathological involvement of the liver might affect urinary taurine output. Dent and Walshe (1954) detected raised taurine levels in cases of infectious hepatitis and cirrhosis but not in cases of carcinoma of the liver, obstructive jaundice, and liver infiltrations. Other workers (Hsia and Gellis, 1954) have not been able to confirm the rise in hepatitis. The present work indicates that a markedly raised taurine output is a possible but not invariable accompaniment of hepatitis.