By MAYNARD MURRAY, C. ROWELL N INCREASE in the guanidine content of the A blood of epileptics has been reported b y
Ellis (1). In a recent communication (2), it was shown that there was not only a slight increase in the basal level of guanidine-like substances in the blood of patients with epilepsy, b u t that there was a synchronous rise in the quantity of these substances in the blood with the convulsion (Fig. 1). We were interested t o determine whether this rise in blood guanidine levels occurred in artificially induced fits as well as in spontaneous ones, i.e., whether the guanidine rise was a result of the convulsion per se, or whether there was a difference in this biochemical reaction in the two types of fits.
The Effect of Metrazol Shock on Blood Guanidine' Levels A group of ten patients a t Longview State Hospital who were receiving metrazol shock therapy was * Received Nov. 13 1948 from the Physiology Laboratory University of Ci&inna&. This work was done in 1940 but 'interrupted by the authors' service with the Armed Forces.
1 Throughout this article the term guanidine is used in lieu of guanidine-like substances.