DOES THE IRRITANT ACTION OF EMETINE HYDROCHLORIDE 

 EXTEND TO THE KIDNEY? 1 



By D. de la Paz and R. Montenegro 



(From the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Surgery, 

 University of the Philippines) 



Emetine possesses a powerful local irritant action, but its 

 irritant effect on the kidneys and other remote organs, except 

 the gastrointestinal tract, is not definitely known. Duck- 

 worth, (2) in 1869, observed the frequent occurrence of albu- 

 minuria in animals poisoned with emetia. 2 Zeff(8) found small 

 amounts of albumin in the urine of most of his patients treated 

 with emetine for pulmonary disease. According to Foulkrod,(3) 

 the kidney undergoes some damage, and albuminuria results 

 in animals given emetine. Shortly after the discovery by Ved- 

 der(6) and Rogers (5) that emetine is amcebicidal, it has been 

 extensively used in amoebic dysentery in large doses injected 

 repeatedly for a considerable length of time. It is surprising 

 that this method of employing the drug has not apparently given 

 rise to renal complications. Does the irritant action of emetine 

 extend to the kidneys when it is administered as it is usually 

 done in amoebic dysentery? The difficulty of obtaining a satis- 

 factory information from the patients is self-evident. We have, 

 therefore, carried out the present experiments on animals. 



Active full-grown dogs were used for the experiments. They 

 were given soap and water baths and rubbed dry with towels, 

 and each was placed in a clean metabolism cage. Their diet 

 consisted of rice, meat, and fish. Food and water were given 

 only once in twenty-four hours at about the same time each 

 day, but the animals were allowed each time as much as they 

 could eat and drink. The urine for twenty-four hours was 

 collected daily in a graduated cylinder and examined for casts 

 and albumin. We used the test for albumin, described by Glaes- 

 gen.(4) This offers two advantages over Heller's nitric acid 

 test; it detects the presence of a smaller pathological amount 

 of albumin and gives a sharper reaction. When at least five 

 successive examinations showed the absence of albumin and casts 



1 Received for publication August 11, 1917. 



3 Emetia is the alkaloid of ipecacuanha, according to Duckworth. It is 

 probably impure emetine. 



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