THE RELATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF SODIUM AND CHLORIDE EXCRETION*

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Abstract
Many older studies and even some recent ones still refer to the metabolism of "salt" (i.e., NaCl). Chloride concns. even today are expressed as "sodium chloride" by others. As there is evidence that Na and Cl do not necessarily behave in parallel fashion, 50 consecutive patients were studied as to their handling of a single 10-g. oral dose of NaCl under carefully controlled conditions. Urinary Na and Cl balances were done to test the relative excretion and retention of these ions. In only 26% of the patients did Na and Cl elimination agree within [plus or minus] 5%; there were many cases of Na retention without Cl retention without Cl retention and vice versa. These findings indicate the physiol. non-existence of "salt" and emphasize the fact that the behavior of one ion cannot be safely deduced or predicted from investigation of the other. Use was made in this study of a newly-developed method for Na detn. (Jour. Clin. Endocrinol. 9:95-100. 1949).

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