These experiments indicate that, in obstructive jaundice, the bile which escapes from the liver is absorbed by the hepatic capillaries and carried by the blood to the kidneys. The presence of a thoracic duct fistula influences in no way the development of icterus after total obstruction of the common bile duct. Bile pigments, sufficient to give a Salkowski test, may or may not appear in the lymph of the thoracic duct in such experiments, their appearance possibly depending upon the rapidity of bile secretion and the amount of lymph flow. Chronic icterus developing in an animal with a thoracic duct fistula gives an interesting distribution of bile pigments in the body fluids. The lymph and pericardial fluid contain the same amount, which is much less than the content of bile pigment in the blood serum and urine. It seems clear that in both acute and chronic obstructive jaundice the lymphatic apparatus takes no essential or active part in the absorption of bile pigments from the liver. At best, the lymphatic system is a secondary factor in the mechanism of jaundice.
Article|
January 05 1911
THE PATHOGENESIS OF ICTERUS
G. H. Whipple,
G. H. Whipple
From the Hunterian Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
Search for other works by this author on:
J. H. King
J. H. King
From the Hunterian Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
Search for other works by this author on:
G. H. Whipple
From the Hunterian Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
J. H. King
From the Hunterian Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
Received:
August 06 1910
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
Copyright, 1911, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York
1911
J Exp Med (1911) 13 (1): 115–135.
Article history
Received:
August 06 1910
Citation
G. H. Whipple, J. H. King; THE PATHOGENESIS OF ICTERUS . J Exp Med 5 January 1911; 13 (1): 115–135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.13.1.115
Download citation file: