On the diuretic action of digitalis / by T. Lauder Brunton and Henry Power.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the diuretic action of digitalis / by T. Lauder Brunton and Henry Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    If Digitalis acted as a diuretic only by raising the blood-pressure, the flow of urine should have been greatly increased immediately after the injection, and should have diminished with the fall of arterial tension. Instead of this the secretion was least when the blood-pressure was highest, and most copious when the tension had fallen below the normal. The explanation we would offer of these phenomena is, that Digitalis probably stimulates the vaso-motor nerves generally, but affects those of the kidney more powerfully than those of other parts of the body.. Thus, it causes a moderate contraction of the systemic vessels, and raises the blood-pressure in them, but, at the same time, produces excessive contrac- tion of the renal vessels, so as to stop the circulation in the kidneys and arrest the secretion of urine. As the action of the drug on the systemic vessels passes off they relax, and the blood-pressure falls ; but the renal arteries probably dilate more quickly and to a greater extent than the others. The pressure of blood in the glomeruli may thus be increased above that normally present m them, although the tension in the arterial system generally may have fallen below the normal. < . Additional evidence in favour of this explanation is afforded by the fa that the urine collected after the reestablishment of secretion contains albumen, just as Herrmann found it to do after mechanical arrest of the circulation through the renal arteries. We do not overlook the possibility that the alteration m secretion may be partly due to the direct action of the drug on the secreting elements of the kidneys, and we are still engaged in experiments on this subject.