Control of Uric Acid Excretion

Abstract
SINCE the rate of urate excretion normally approximates 10 per cent of the amount filtered by the glomeruli, it originally seemed appropriate to consider urinary uric acid as filtered urate that had escaped reabsorption. Berliner and his associates showed that the calculated amount of urate "reabsorbed" increased until the plasma urate concentration exceeded 15 mg per 100 ml.1 At higher plasma urate values, urate reabsorption seemed to approach a maximum rate, in a manner similar to glucose titration experiments. In 1950 Praetorius and Kirk described a hypouricemic young man whose uric acid excretion rate was more than 40 per cent . . .