Clinical evaluation of ketone bodies in body fluids of cows in late pregnancy and their fetuses.

Ketone body concentrations were determined in six body fluids of cows in late pregnancy and their fetuses (blood plasma and urine of cows, amniotic and allantoic fetal fluids, and fetal blood serum and urine) using the head-space gas chromatographic method. Physiological ratios O/T% of oxidized (acetone and acetoacetic acid) to total (acetone, isopropanol, acetoacetic and 3-hydroxybutyric acid) ketone bodies were below 10% in cow blood plasma and urine, fetal serum and urine, and allantoic fluid, and below 20% in amniotic fluid. A scheme for the evaluation of the degree and duration of ketosis based on the O/T% ratio is proposed. The existence of a renal regulatory mechanism for excretion of ketone bodies is suggested by analogy with the renal acidobasic regulation.