The Journal of clinical investigation
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The metabolic and kinetic responses to rapidly intravenously administered sodium acetoacetate (1.0 mmol/kg body wt) was studied after an overnight fast in 12 male and female adults weighing between 88 and 215% of average body weight. Blood was obtained before, during, and after the infusion for determination of circulating concentrations of immunoreactive insulin, glucose, acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate and free fatty acids. In three obese subjects the studies were repeated after 3 and 24 days of total starvation. ⋯ Ketone body volumes of distribution in the overnight fasted subjected varied from about 18% to 31% of body wt, suggesting that ketone bodies are not homogenously distributed in the body water. In the three obese subjects restudied after 3- and 24-day fasts volumes of distribution remained approximately constant. When total ketone body concentrations in the blood were below 2.0 mmol/liter, there was a linear relationship between ketone body utilization rates and ketone body concentrations; no correlation was found when blood concentrations were higher.