Blood coagulation in acute iron intoxication.

7 HILE STUDYING acute iron intoxication in dogs, Reissmann and his associates14 noticed that just prior to death in dogs no anticoagulant was necessary for collecting blood for various studies. Intestinal bleeding was observed in some experimental animals. Smith, Jones, and Cochran4 reported that in a fatal case of ferrous iron intoxication the heart’s blood remained unclotted for five hours after death. Scattered hemorrhages were observed. The observations of these investigators stimulated our interest in the study of blood coagulation in acute iron intoxication. The following factors were observed, using rabbits as the experimental animal: coagulation time, platelets, clot retraction, qualitative and quantitative studies of fibrinogen, fibrinolytic activity, and prothrombin. The defect in blood coagulation was apparently caused by a combination of factors.