The changes in plasma potassium level after epinephrine in normal human beings and in persons with epilepsy.

Biochemical studies directed toward finding a difference in the blood composition of normal and epileptic subjects have thus far been unfruitful. In the course of other studies at this laboratory (1), it was observed that the pattern of change in the plasma potassium level after an injection of epinephrine in a subject afflicted with epilepsy was different from that found in normal subjects similarly treated. An investigation was therefore undertaken to measure the changes in the concentration of plasma potassium, sodium and glucose at several time-intervals after an injection of epinephrine in epileptic patients and in normal human subjects. The results of this investigation showed that there was a significant difference in the pattern and extent of change in the plasma potassium level of epileptic subjects compared to normals subsequent to administration of epinephrine. There was no difference in the plasma sodium levels and only a probably significant difference in the extent of change in the plasma glucose level.