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Summary: Exchangeable sodium and potassium, total body water, and sulphate space were measured in 42 patients with severe valvular heart disease who were free of oedema. Compared with normal subjects of the same height, no increase in exchangeable sodium was found but a mean potassium depletion of 27% was shown. This depletion was not related to diuretic therapy, and no relationship between the degree of depletion and postoperative arrhythmias was found. It is concluded that the major cause of the low exchangeable potassium is the reduction in cell mass that occurs in chronic heart disease, and that there is no significant fall in the intracellular potassium concentration.

(Goodhead and McAlister, 1970). Nonetheless, all these procedures have the disadvantage that they alter the equilibrium between bound and free hormone so that the percentage uptake increases with time. Furthermore, as the rate of dissociation is temperature dependent, both temperature and the duration of incubation must be rigidly standardized. Recently Amersham have introduced the Thyopac kit based on the use of a molecular sieve with a pore size such that only the free fraction can enter its matrices. This procedure has the advantage that the equilibrium of the reaction is not disturbed and, therefore, accurate timing of the period of incubation is unnecessary.The purpose of the present paper is to compare the simplicity, precision, and diagnostic value of the Triosorb and Thyopac T3 procedures. Materials and MethodsSera from 263 subjects were tested, of whom 114 were

1. An ancillary diagnostic technique using Fluorine-l8 or Strontium-87m is described, and has assisted in the correct diagnosis of fifty-two patients admitted with the provisional diagnosis of infective spondylitis. 2. The technique is of particular value in the assessment of reactivation of chronic spinal infections and in the differential diagnosis of atypical lesions.

The distribution of kidney position in the sitting posture has been determined in a series of patients presenting for renography, using radiographic and ultrasonic techniques. Both the craniocaudal distribution of kidney centre positions and the distribution of the differences in depth below the posterior skin surface of the two kidney centres have been found to have a significant standard deviation. The effect of these distributions on the measurement of relative effective renal plasma flow by 131-I Hippuran probe renography has been calculated for the situation in which no kidney localizing techniques are used. The resulting error distribution has an SD of 21.7 per cent in the case of equally divided function.