Studies of the Urinary Excretion of Nicotinic Acid in Diabetic Patients

In a recent paper, Banerjee, Ghosh and Bhattacharya (1948) have developed a method using Koenig's (1904) basic reaction for the estimation of nicotinic acid in urine in the presence of sugar. It represents a simplification of' the earlier methods of Melnick and Field (1940), Swaminathan (1939), Harris and Raymond (1939) and several others. An interest in the study of urinary excretion of nicotinic acid having been roused by the paper of Neuwahl (.1943) in which a marked improvement in glucose tolerance of diabetic patients is reported with the oral administration of nicotinic acid, the present investigation was undertaken to study the extent, if any, of interference in the nutrition of nicotinic acid of diabetic patients with pronounced diminished glucose tolerance.