STUDIES OF UROBILINOGEN

Abstract

Estimations of the urobilinogen content of stool and of urine afford information regarding the state of hepatic function, the patency of the extrahepatic biliary passages and the rate of destruction of red cells. The potential clinical value of estimations of urobilinogen has generally been inadequately realized. This has been due in large part to the lack of a method sufficiently simple and rapid to be within the scope of the average clinical laboratory and yet sufficiently accurate to afford dependable results. No attempt will be made to review the numerous procedures which have been devised for the quantitation of urobilinogen. This information may be obtained from the reviews and methods of Wilbur and Addis,¹ Terwen,² Wallace and Diamond,³ Elman and McMaster,⁴ Watson,⁵ Scott,⁶ Naumann⁷ and Farmer.⁸ For accuracy of results, the method devised by Watson^5b is unquestionably superior to any previously described. It has been modified