COMPARISONS OF URINARY AND SERUM FIND- 

 INGS IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF TUBERCULOSIS* 



J. BRONFENBRENNER, J. ROCKMAN akd W. J. MITCHELL, Jr. 



(Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, 



Pittsburgh, Pa.) 



Introduction. The urinary changes during tuberculosis have 

 been given considerable study. The results obtained by different 

 authors contradict each other, however, in many respects. It is 

 very Hkely that the disparities among the results of different authors 

 are chiefly due to the fact that it is very difficuh to select, f or such 

 studies, a group of tuberculous individuals wholly free from con- 

 ditions that influenae the urinary findings and thus compHcate the 

 problem. From a review of the Hterature it appears, however, that 

 a number of investigators have been in accord in finding marked 

 increases of neutral sulfur in the urines of tuberculous individuals. 

 These findings appeared to be very promising from the Standpoint 

 of diagnosis, because they seemed to offer the modified procedura 

 of Moritz Weiss as a Substitute for the original technic of Ehrlich. 



Beginning with Moritz Weiss/-^ a number of investigators have 

 found the neutral-sulfur test very helpful in the diagnosis of tuber- 

 culosis. They have claimed, for instance, that the amount of 

 neutral sulfur increases with the progress of the disease and that, 

 in general, the amount of neutral sulfur in the urine suggests the 

 degree of tissue destruction in the body.^ According to Moritz 

 Weiss, the persistence of neutral sulfur in, or its disappearance 

 from, the urine, in the progress of anti-tuberculous treatment, in- 

 dicates the degree of efficiency of the treatment. Curti,^ in repeat- 

 ing the work of Weiss, found not only that this test was constantly 



* Proceedings of the Columbia University Biochemical Association, Dec. 4, 

 1914; BiocHEM. Bull., 1915, iv, p. 211. 



1 M. Weiss : Wien. klin. Woch., 1913, p. 1705. 



2 M. Weiss and A. Weiss: Ibid., 1912, p. 1183. 



3 Keim and Vigot: Presse medicale, 1914, p. 153. 

 *Curti: (quoted in) Münch. med. Wach., 1914, p. 1577. 



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