Frederic Parker

The placenta in toxemia of pregnancy

Abstract A study of toxemia of pregnancy has been made with the purpose of correlating the placental pathology with the clinical and laboratory findings. Also a titration of the prolan of pregnancy in both the placentas and urines has been done. Sixty of the cases in this review have been studied by the medical service as well as the obstetric. From the results obtained, it is felt that the placental lesion is an accurate indicator of the severity of the toxemia. The placental lesion is found in cases with no previous hypertension or kidney damage. It is present in many cases with previous renovascular disease. Therefore, toxemia is an entity in itself which may either appear with an undamaged kidney or may be superimposed upon previous kidney damage. Albuminuria is the most accurate sign of the presence of placental damage. A titration of the prolan of pregnancy, both of the placenta and of the urine, shows no standard difference between normal and toxemic cases. The medical classification of hypertension in pregnancy agrees largely with the placental findings except in some cases with previous hypertension in which there was a very early placental lesion with no marked clinical signs of toxemia.

STUDIES OF DISEASES OF THE LYMPHOID AND MYELOID TISSUES

From a study of the metabolism of 71 lymph nodes and tumors one may conclude: 1. The nature of a tumor can not be predicted from the metabolism because too much overlapping of metabolic rates exists between the pathological groups. 2. There is no evidence metabolically one way or another as to whether malignant lymphomata of any type should be classed as neoplastic or as infectious processes. 3. The degree of cell differentiation can in most cases be foretold by the percentage difference between the aerobic and the anaerobic glycolysis. The greater the differentiation the greater the percentage difference. Sarcomata in general constitute an exception to this rule. 4. The degree of malignancy in carcinoma, but not in other tumors, can, with certain exceptions, be predicted from the height of the value U. 5. Human sarcomata appear to have a metabolism far more closely comparable to that of benign tumors than to that of carcinomata. They do not behave as malignant tumors under the Warburg classification. Their energy requirements are not of the same order as those of carcinoma. 6. One can not from the value U or from the glycolytic rates predict whether or not a tissue should be classed as neoplastic. 7. Warburgs findings for carcinomata are confirmed and amplified.

Experimental evidence for the existence of a uterine hormone.

Abstract 1.1. Hysterectomy in rabbits causes degeneration of the ovarian follicular structure and development of the interstitial body. 2.2. An aqueous extract from the human uterus, given to rabbits following hysterectomy, prevents these ovarian changes. 3.3. From this study and other evidence, the uterus appears to have an endocrine function.