THE METABOLISM OF THE VOLATILE AMINES: VI. THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE VOLATILE BASE PRESENT IN BLOOD.

As part of a series of studies into the etiology of acute hepatic encephalopathy the identity of the volatile base, which had been extracted from blood and presumed to be ammonia, was investigated. In order to differentiate between ammonia and the other volatile bases with which it can be confused, a method of separating these compounds by the use of gas chromatography was developed. The technique is described in detail because it incorporates several novel ideas that can be applied to the isolation and identification of similar compounds in many biological systems. The volatile base extracted from blood was found to be ammonia, and no other volatile base was demonstrable in blood from both healthy subjects and patients suffering from acute hepatic encephalopathy.