372 INOSITOLS 



quera^^ treated 10 patients with cirrhosis of the hver with a regimen of a 

 high protein diet plus 600 mg. of inositol daily, and in 7 noted gain in body 

 weight, disappearance of gastrointestinal symptoms, increase in diuresis, 

 and definite subjective improvement. However, Patek and Post^^ ^^(j pre- 

 viously demonstrated the beneficial effects of diets of high nutritive value 

 in 54 patients with cirrhosis of the liver. The diets employed by Patek were 

 of high protein content and were supplemented with yeast, liver extract, 

 and thiamine chloride. Goldstein and Rosahn^^ and Broun^^ considered 

 inositol to be of value in the treatment of cirrhosis of the liver, but definitive 

 clinical experiments in which the diet was controlled are lacking, and the 

 data at hand make it difficult to ascribe any observed effects to the ad- 

 ministered inositol and not to general composition of the diet. In this con- 

 nection, it should be noted that Sellers et al.^^ could find no evidence that 

 inositol favorably influences the course of cirrhosis experimentally pro- 

 duced in rats by the administration of carbon tetrachloride. In contrast, 

 the addition of either choline or dZ-methionine to the diet induced con- 

 siderable improvement in the cirrhotic livers. Felch and Dotti^^ adminis- 

 tered 3 g. of inositol daily to 30 diabetic patients mth hypercholesteremia 

 and concluded that inositol is an effective agent in lowering serum choles- 

 terol and lipid P, but neither Shay," who gave 1.2 g. of inositol daily to 

 patients with diabetes, nor Gephart,^* who gave 3 g. daily to a patient 

 with xanthomatous biliary cirrhosis, observed any significant change in 

 the concentration of cholesterol in the blood. Similar negative results were 

 obtained by Lupten et al.,^^ who likewise found no change in the insulin 

 requirements of the patients. Gross and Kesten^° noted significant reduc- 

 tions in the concentration of serum cholesterol of 55 out of a series of 64 

 patients with psoriasis whose blood levels of cholesterol were above normal, 

 when preparations obtained from soybeans were administered. The daily 

 dose of these preparations contained 0.6 g. inositol, but the presence of 

 other factors such as choline permit no interpretation regarding the effect 

 of the inositol or indeed of any single component of the preparations. 



" A. P. Echaurren and R. Jorquera, Rev. Medica de Chile 71, 755 (1943) [abstr. in 



J. Am. Med. Assoc. 124, 66 (1944)]. 

 " A. J. Patek, Jr., and J. Post, J. Clin. Invest. 20, 481 (1941). 

 B3 M. R. Goldstein and P. D. Rosahn, Connecticut State Med J. 9, 351 (1945). 

 5" G. O. Broun, Postgrad. Med. 4, 203 (1948). 



65 E. A. Sellers, C. C. Lucas and C. H. Best, Brit. Med. J. 1948, I, 1061. 



66 W. C. Felch and L. B. Dotti, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 72, 376 ilM9);Bull. N. 

 Y. Acad. Med. 26, 261 (1950). 



" H. Shay, Am. J. Digest. Diseases 10, 48 (1943). 



68 M. C. Gephart, Ann. Internal Med. 26, 746 (1947). 



" A. M. Lupton, T. W. Battafarano, F. E. Murphy, and C. L. Brown, Ann. West. 



Med. Surg. 3, .342 (1949). 

 60 P. Gross and B. Kesten, N. Y. State J. Med. 50, 2683 (1940). 



