Relationship Between β-Hydroxybutyrate and Acetoacetate Plus Acetone Contents of Blood and Urine of the Ruminant

Abstract

Separation of the blood plasma, whole blood, and urine ketones was made under normal conditions and in various states of hyperketonemia and ketonuria. The relationship of blood level of a given ketone fraction to urine concentration and total excretion of that ketone fraction was best expressed as a log-log equation for both the acetoacetic acid plus acetone fraction and the β-hydroxybutyric acid fraction. At low total blood or urine ketone body concentrations, β-hydroxybutyrate was by far the major constituent, but at increasing ketone body concentrations the ratio of β-hydroxybutyrate to acetoacetate plus acetone decreased from approximately 7 to values between 1 and 2.5. Relationships for blood plasma ketone fractions were similar to those for whole blood. © 1967, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.