THE SYNTHESIS AND ELIMINATION OF HIPPURIC ACID IN NEPHRITIS: A NEW RENAL FUNCTION TEST

Abstract

Since the time when Bunge and Schmiedeberg¹showed that the perfused dog kidney could effect the synthesis of hippuric acid from benzoic acid and glycine, it has been assumed by investigators, from time to time, that the synthetic ability of the kidney for the formation of hippuric acid could be used as an index of renal function. Rowntree and Geraghty,²in their paper on the use of phenolsulphonephthalein as a means of testing renal function, enumerate among other renal tests that of the synthesis of hippuric acid. More recently, Violle³reported that in nephritis the formation of hippuric acid is much less than in normal individuals after giving 0.5 gm. doses of sodium benzoate and collecting the twenty-four hour specimens. He found that in some cases the amount of extra hippuric acid corresponding to the amount of ingested benzoate was not excreted under forty-eight hours. The work of Kingsbury and