The Relation of Metabolic Rate to Body Weight and Organ Size
Pediat.Res. 1: 185-195 (1967) Metabolism basal metabolic rate growth REVIEW kidney glomerular filtration rate body surface area body weight oxygen consumption organ growth The Relation of Metabolic Rate to Body Weight and Organ Size A Review M.A. HOLLIDAY[54J, D. POTTER, A.JARRAH and S.BEARG Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California, and the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Oakland, California, USA Introduction Historical Background The relation of metabolic rate to body size has been a The measurement of metabolic rate was first achieved subject of continuing interest to physicians, especially by LAVOISIER in 1780. By 1839 enough measurements pediatricians. It has been learned that many quanti- had been accumulated among subjects of different tative functions vary during growth in relation to sizes that it was suggested in a paper read before the metabolic rate, rather than body size. Examples of Royal Academy of France (co-authored by a professor these are cardiac output, glomerular filtration rate, of mathematics and a professor of medicine and oxygen consumption and drug dose. This phenomenon science) that BMR did not increase as body weight may reflect a direct cause and effect relation or may be increased but, rather, as surface area increased [42]. a fortuitous parallel between the relatively slower in- In 1889, RICHET [38] observed that BMR/kg in rab- crease in metabolic rate compared to body size and the bits of varying size decreased as body weight increased; function in question. RUBNER [41] made a similar observation in dogs. Both The fact that a decrease in metabolism and many noted that relating BMR to surface area provided re- other measures of physiological function in relation to a sults that did not vary significantly with size.
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