[Oxygen consumption and body weight development of chronic uremic rats (author's transl)]

Impaired weight gain, a common feature in experimental chronic uremia, led to compare oxygen consumtion values of chronic uremic rats and their controls. Oxygen consumption measurement may allow an approach to the evaluation of total energy requirement. Three groups of animals were considered: uremic rats (CU) of less weight (402.66 +/- 9.9 g) than their control group (NA) (498.3 +/- 26.13) and younger normal animals (NJ), showing a similar weight (376.0 +/- 8.8) to that of the uremics. Significant differences in oxygen consumption values/body weight were found between group NJ (0.927 +/- 0.042 ml O2/mn/100 g rat) and both groups CU and NA (0.788 +/- 0.036 and 0.788 +/- 0.028 respectively). Proportional decrease of energetically active body mass in chronic uremic animals may be the reason of the findings.