RENAL CLEARANCE IN PATIENTS WITH MYXEDEMA

DESPITE the considerable interest that exists in the cardiovascular abnormalities associated with myxedema, little can be found in the literature regarding renal function in this disorder. Corcoran and Page reported renal function studies on 2 patients suffering from myxedema, which demonstrated a reduction in renal blood flow, glomerular filtration, and tubular secretory capacity (1). The data of Beaumont and Robertson (2) indicate that urea clearance is depressed in myxedema, but that no change occurs in the concentrating ability of the kidneys. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow in 7 myxedematous patients. Specific clearance methods were used on 7 patients with untreated myxedema,1 to Study the rate of glomerular filtration, the renal plasma flow, the filtration fraction, and the renal blood flow. Inulin clearances (CIN) were measured to determine the rate of glomerular filtration, and measurements of plasma p-aniinohippurate clearances (CPAH) were used to determine the effective renal plasma flow. The filtration fraction (FF) is the calculated ratio of the clearances, CIN/CPAH- The renal blood flow (RBF) was calculated from the renal plasma flow and the hematocrit values.