Department of General Surgery of Hospital de Santo António
Developed by the American pharmaceutical laboratory "Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Inc." between 1920 and 1960.
Developed for use in the renal function test. This test, based on phenolsulfonaphthalein excretion, was developed by Leonard Rowntree (1883-1959) and John Geraghty (1876-1924) between 1909 and 1910, at a time when chemical determinations were generally not available and renal evaluation was essentially limited to urinary protein and urinary sediment study.
Based on 6 mg of intravenously or intramuscularly injected phenolsulfonaphthalein, the calorimetric urine test showed whether renal function was normal or impaired.
This set displays thirteen patterns of different shades of pink in sealed glass vials, each marked with a different number from 5 to 100, with the purpose of comparing patient's urine portions from the two hours preceding the time of administration with standard solution by means of a graduated scale colorimeter. The average normal eliminations were 40% to 50% in the first hour and 60% to 75% in the second hour after intramuscular injections; and 25% to 45% after 15 minutes, 50% to 65% in the first hour, and 65% to 85% in the second hour after intravenous administration.
Despite popularity achieved by this dye, the use of phenolsulfonaphthalein to evaluate renal function went into disuse due to interference of other factors in its elimination, which made assessment results unreliable.