Diffusion Equilibrium for Ammonia in the Kidney of the Acidotic Dog

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Abstract

Inflow of preformed ammonia in arterial blood, renal production of ammonia, outflow of ammonia in renal venous blood, and urinary excretion of ammonia were measured during the infusion of 15NH4Cl into one renal artery of dogs with chronic metabolic acidosis. Our results show that the specific activity of ammonia measured in the urine and that calculated in the renal pool agree within 95%. Pool specific activity is obtained by dividing the rate of infusion of isotope by the pool turnover rate, i.e., the sum of the rate of ammonia output in the urine and that in renal venous blood. An average of 35% of urinary ammonia is derived from arterial ammonia in these experiments.

Authors

William J. Stone, Sulamita Balagura, Robert F. Pitts