Metabolism in Dogs with Eck Fistula. 
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Creatinine and creatin metabolism in dogs with Eck fistula. 
By NELLIS B. FOSTER and HENRY L. FISHER. 
[From the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry of Columbia University 
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.] 
In connection with certain studies of hepatic function the 
creatin and creatinine metabolism were investigated in two dogs 
with Eck fistula. This subject was studied last year by London 
and Boljarski. 1 They found that the administration of creatinine 
did not increase urinary creatinine, and that the feeding of creatin 
caused no increase in creatin excretion but was followed by a slight 
increase in eliminated creatinine. 
The diet given our dogs consisted of unsweetened condensed 
milk, cracker meal, lard and water. Dog I took food with no 
apparent hunger and would at no time eat the prescribed amount, 
some days taking scarcely any. To this, in part is to be assigned 
the rapid loss in weight. Dog II took his food well and main- 
tained constant weight. 2 
A study of the tables shows that ingestion of creatinine in- 
creased the creatinine output in the urine. The excretion of this 
substance is not quantitative in every instance, though at times 
this is approximated. There was no clear cut effect upon creatin 
excretion after giving creatinine. Following the ingestion of 
creatin there is no corresponding rise in creatin excretion; a slight 
rise in the creatinine output is suggestive but not convincing. 
Both creatinine and creatin appear to act as diuretics and the 
increase in nitrogen excretion on those days is possibly due to a 
washing out of excretory substances rather than to a conversion 
of creatin or creatinine into some other substance previous to 
excretion. The disproportion between the urinary nitrogen and 
the amount of substance administered suggests this explanation : 
1 Zeit. f. Physiol. Chem., 1909, lxii, 465. 
2 Both dogs were examined carefully at autopsy to ascertain if a collateral cir- 
culation had rendered the Eck fistula useless for our purpose. In Dog I no such 
condition could be detected, but in Dog II a minute aberrant branch of the splenic 
vein was found which in some slight degree might have diminished the effects of the 
operative anastomosis, jj 
