Abstract
MANY substances have been tried as substitutes for human blood plasma. Recently (NATURE, 153, 145; 1944) reference was made to the use of 'despeciated bovine serum'. A recent note (Edin. Med. J., 50, 758; 1943) describes the use of isinglass, which is available in sufficient quantities and can be cheaply prepared, as a substitute for human blood plasma. Its injection causes no antigenic response. Prof. N. B. Taylor and Miss M. S. Moorhouse (Canad. Med. Assoc. J., 49, 251; 1943) transfused 25 dogs from which 47–71 per cent of the blood had been bled, with 4 or 6 per cent solutions of isinglass, and most of the dogs made a complete and uneventful recovery. Repeated injections over a period of weeks caused no changes in the viscera, and isinglass does not interfere with the normal regeneration of the blood plasma. H. E. Pugsley and R. F. Farquharson (Canad. Med. Assoc. J., 49, 262; 1943) gave the isinglass solution 58 times to 51 human patients to test it for pyrogenic and other toxic effects. A slight rise of temperature occurred on eight occasions, but no other unfavourable signs were noted in the other cases. When the isinglass was given to patients suffering from acute haemorrhage, extensive burns, compound fractures and severe circulatory failure, the results were all good, and there were no toxic effects. The amount given varied from 200 c.c. to an infant to 8,800 c.c., given over a period of three days, to an adult.
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Isinglass as a Substitute for Human Blood Plasma. Nature 153, 247–248 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153247d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153247d0