Deoxycorticosterone-induced alkalosis in dogs

¹ Department of Physiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Metabolic alkalosis was produced with daily injections of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) in eight dogs subsisting on diets deficient in potassium. In every case recovery from alkalosis was obtained within 5 days after discontinuing the hormone and without resupplying potassium. Diets low in potassium and high in sodium did not produce alkalosis without administration of the hormone nor did such diets prevent recovery from alkalosis after withdrawal of the hormone. Variations in the intake of sodium and potassium did, however, serve to modify the severity of DCA-induced alkalosis. In a study using four dogs, the increments in concentrations of bicarbonate in the plasma amounted to 2.6–3.7 mEq/liter when the animals were eating a normal diet, 5.7–10.4 when on a diet low in potassium, and 0.4–2.4 mEq/liter when both sodium and potassium were restricted.

Key Words: potassium restriction • sodium restriction

Submitted on June 23, 1964