CHANGES IN COMPOSITION OF BLOOD IN PERNICIOUS ANEMIA

Abstract

The strikingly beneficial value of a special diet for patients with pernicious anemia has been demonstrated recently by Minot and Murphy.¹ A diet containing, among other factors, a large quantity of complete proteins in the form of liver, and which was relatively low in fat, caused forty-five consecutive cases to show a prompt, rapid and distinct remission of the anemia coincident with marked symptomatic improvement, except for pronounced disorders due to spinal cord lesions. We have studied certain changes in the composition of the blood in ten of these cases which were in the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital between November, 1925, and March, 1926. Our observations were made for the purpose of determining some of the physiologic changes that occurred in cases of pernicious anemia treated by this method. Our results are reported in this paper. CLINICAL MATERIAL AND METHODS USED The clinical material consisted of ten typical cases