Abstract
REPEATED plasma volume determinations on liberated Indian prisoners-of-war suffering from extreme protein insufficiency have shown that the constituents of the total circulating volume return to normal in a definite sequence. These patients had, at the time they were first studied, a normochromic macrocytic anæmia, a reduced body weight, a reduced serum total protein concentration, confined almost entirely to the albumin fraction, and hence a reduction in the albumin/globulin ratio, a slightly reduced plasma volume and, because of the low hæmatocrit, a significantly reduced blood volume. There was, therefore, a great reduction in the total circulating hæmoglobin and total circulating plasma protein. When the patients were given a diet rich in calories, proteins and vitamins, the above factors returned to normal according to a definite pattern. For the sake of ease of description, the recovery process has been divided into three stages. These are purely arbitrary, and may show considerable variation in their time relations.
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ROSSITER, R. Pattern of Recovery in Protein Deficiency. Nature 158, 304 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158304b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158304b0
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