[Spermatic index of intoxication, a method of the assessment of blood toxicity]

The article deals with a new method for determining the degree of intoxication in patients with peritonitis of various etiology. Bull sperm cells were used as the test-object. The degree of intoxication is judged according to the ratio of the mean life time of the spermatozoa in the studied filtrate, obtained from the blood serum of patients with peritonitis by filtration through polysulfone membranes with a pass band of up to 70,000 daltons, to the life time in a control glucose-nitrate solution. The authors called this ratio as the spermatic index of toxicity. It was 80.1 +/- 18.7% in the donors. The spermatic index of toxicity was 35.0 +/- 9.0% in the first day after the operation, 44.6 +/- 16.7% on the fifth day, and 70.8 +/- 27.7% before discharge from the hospital. The method is automatic, which excludes subjective a appraisal of the results, and may be suggested for use in clinical practice.