Acid-base Equivalence of the Blood

Attention was called recently (1) to the occurrence of hyperproteinemia in patients with lymphogranuloma inguinale. Thirty-five cases have now been examined, in 26 of whom the protein content of the serum exceeded 8.0 per cent (Table I). Williams and Gutman (1, 2) pointed out that the hyperglobulinemia observed in lymphogranuloma inguinale would account, in part, for two interesting phenomena associated with the disease: the increased erythrocytic sedimentation rate, often greatly in excess of that consistent with the degree of obviously active infection; and anticomplementary properties of the serum, demonstrable in a significant proportion of these patients. It is desired here to call attention to another peculiarity of the blood in lymphogranuloma inguinale, thought also to be related to hyperglobulinemia. Electrolyte partitions of the blood in this disease (Table II) revealed that in every instance in which the serum protein was 9.0 per cent or over, there was an associated discrepancy in acid-base equivalence: the sum of the determined acid equivalents exceeded the total base, B-A appeared to be negative.' Further investigation showed that a similar discrepancy in acid-base balance of the blood obtained in diseases other than lymphogranuloma inguinale in which there was marked hyperglobulinemia. It would appear from our data that an apparent excess of total determined acid equivalents over total base is, in fact, a peculiarity common to most bloods with definite hyperglobulinemia, irrespective of etiology.