Urinary Recovery of Salicylamide as Its Glucuronide in Liver Disease

An attempt was made to establish the method for the estimation of glucuronide formation in vivo using salicylamide and further to study the alteration in the glucuronide formation in liver disease. The results were as follows: 1. The method for the determination of free salicylamide separately from other conjugates of salicylamide in urine, without involving any hydrolysis of the other conjugates, was presented. When 1 g. of salicylamide was administered to the subjects with or without liver injuries, no free salicylamide was detected by the present method in the urine following the salicylamide administration. 2. The analytical method for the determination of salicylamide glucuronide was also devised by employing a hydrolysis with β-glucuronidase. The ratio of the salicylamide liberated by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the 10-hour urine following the administration of 1 g. of salicylamide to the total salicylamide excreted in the same urine was neither affected by the total recovery of the salicylamide nor by the urine volume. This ratio was thus used as a means of estimating the capacity of the glucuronide formation in vivo, although it was considered that the ratio might be affected to some extent by the competition between the glucuronide and other conjugate formations in vivo. 3. As a result of this salicylamide glucuronide excretion test, it was indicated that the in vivo formation of salicylamide glucuronide in the patients with postnecrotic cirrhosis was slightly decreased compared with that in normal controls.