Blood, 1951, Vol. 6, No. 12, pp. 1260-1273.
© 1951 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Observations on Erythrocyte and Plasma Cholinesterase
Activity in Dyscrasias of the Blood
HAROLD H. SCUDAMORE PH.D., M.D.1,
LOUIS J. VORHAUS II M.D.1, and
ROBERT M. KARK M.R.C.P. (LOND.), F.A.C.P.1
1 Army Medical Nutrition Laboratory, Chicago. Illinois, an Installation under
the jurisdiction of the Office of The Surgeon General, U.S. Army, and the Department of
Medicine, University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Chicago, Ill.
1. Erythrocyte and plasma cholinesterase activities of the blood were determined by Michel’s potentiometric method in 20 healthy individuals and in
20 patients ill with various blood dyscrasias.
2. The mean erythrocyte cholinesterase activity in the blood of healthy
individuals was 0.71 ± 0.11 
pH/hr. and the mean plasma cholinesterase
activity was 0.98 ± 0.17 pH/hr.
3. Low erythrocyte cholinesterase activity was found in the blood of patients
ill with pernicious anemia or ill with hypoplastic anemia.
4. High erythrocyte cholinesterase activity was found in the blood of patients suffering with anemia secondary to hemorrhage and of patients ill with
pernicious anemia or macrocytic anemia of nontropical sprue in early remission.
5. The plasma cholinesterase activity of blood from patients ill with blood
dyscrasias usually reflected the general clinical status of the patients and, in
general, was related to the albumin concentration in the serum.
6. The low erythrocyte cholinesterase activity increased following multiple
blood transfusions and during a reticulocyte response in a case of hypoplastic
anemia, whereas the plasma cholinesterase activity remained unchanged.
7. The erythrocyte cholinesterase activity in patients ill with pernicious
anemia or macrocytic anemia of nontropical sprue increased rapidly during
therapy beginning with the reticulocyte response and continuing during the
period of increased erythropoietic activity. The plasma cholinesterase activity
increased slowly parallel to improvement in hematologic and clinical status.
8. The possible relationships between alterations in erythrocyte cholinesterase activity in blood dyscrasias and reticulocytosis and erythropoiesis are
discussed.
Submitted on October 5, 1950
Accepted on August 13, 1951
