INTAKE OF POTASSIUM, AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION IN ADDISON'S DISEASE

Abstract

It has long been recognized that injections of sodium chloride are of benefit in the treatment of the characteristic crises of Addison's disease, but it was the quantitative investigation of the electrolytes of the plasma by Loeb and his associates¹ and by Harrop and his associates² that first revealed why large amounts of sodium and chloride are required effectively to combat such crises. Their experiments demonstrated that the loss of ions of sodium and chloride is one of the principal disturbances leading to the development of the crisis and that the crisis can be prevented by a quantitative replacement of these ions. However, the results obtained by treating patients only with sodium chloride have remained less satisfactory than those obtained when extract of adrenal cortex has been given, and no one has succeeded in maintaining indefinitely the life of a completely adrenalectomized dog by administering only sodium chloride.