PRODUCTION OF TEMPORARY PROLONGED HYPERGLYCEMIA BY THE ADMINISTRATION OF GLUCOSE WITH BARBITURATES AND SULFAPYRAZINE

¹ Kettering Laboratory, Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Department of Biophysics and Biometry, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

Large doses of sulfapyrazine greatly enhanced and prolonged the hyperglycemia resulting from the administration of glucose. This effect was increased, additively and to the same extent, by either of two barbiturates, barbital and phenobarbital, each given in half of its LD50 dose. The barbiturates also exerted the same hyperglycemic effect in the absence of sulfapyrazine. Administration of glucose by stomach tube was more lethal and less productive of hyperglycemia than was subcutaneous injection of glucose.

A novel method of measuring the extent of the hyperglycemia is described. First, a parabola is fitted to the logarithms of the concentration of blood sugar and of time, as measured for each blood sample. Then the antilogarithms of the coordinates of the parabola are used to give a fitted glycemic curve. The area under the curve and above the normal concentration of blood sugar was calculated and termed the "hyperglycemic area." Finally, the reciprocal of the "hyperglycemic area" is used as a measure of response to minimize the effect of extrapolation beyond the times when blood samples were taken.