ACTION OF DIURETIC DRUGS

Abstract

The various diuretics are of great clinical value in a wide variety of pathologic states, but the exact conditions which are most favorable for their action and the nature and mechanism of their action remain to a large extent obscure. One of the reasons for the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge is that the diseased states affected by the diuretic drugs vary from patient to patient, and, indeed, in the same patient. Consequently it is difficult to be certain as to what extent the changes following the administration of diuretics are due to those drugs and to what extent they result from spontaneous changes in the pathologic physiology of the conditions under investigation. Furthermore, complete studies of water and salt metabolism are so intricate that most of the investigations on the effect of diuretics are fragmentary and inconclusive. It appeared desirable, therefore, to undertake a study of the various diuretics