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Influence of the State of Hydration of the Body on the Insensible Loss of Weight in Children

(From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y.)

The total insensible loss of body weight or "perspiratio insensibilis" has been measured under standard conditons in five children ranging in age from 9 to 16 years. Variations, due to difference in diets, to restriction or forcing of water intake, to marked diuresis and to antidiuresis, have been determined.

In a normal ("saturated") state of hydration, there is a close parallelism between the insensible loss and the energy metabolsim under ordinary conditions. For practical clinical purposes, this method of estimating the energy metabolism, as proposed by Benedict and Root and amplified by Levine and Wilson and by Johnston and Newburg, offers many advantages over the ordinary gasometric methods.

Fairly marked dehydration from any cause interferes with the usefulness of the method, because the total insensible water loss is diminished to levels far below those indicated in the standard tables. Superhydration, due to excessive water drinking and to administeration of the antidiuretic principle from the hypophysis cerebri (pituitrin or pitressin), likewise interferes because in this state the values for the insensible loss may be far above those predicted from the tables. The type of diet and the mineral content of the ingesta apparently influence the insensible loss also and should be considered in the interpretation of results, when the regimen is undergoing sudden changes or is extreme in any respect. Further investigation on this particular phase of the subject is urgently needed.

Degrees of dehydration, such as those reached in the present study, are not followed by significant alterations in the metabolic rate.^**

^** The authors are indebted to Dr. L. H. Newburg for valuable suggestions regarding the technique of measuring the total water exchanges over long periods of time.

Manuscript received 5 July 1930.