The Choline-Esterase Activity of the Blood Serum in Disease

The investigations of Dale and his coworkers (1, 2) on the chemical transmission of parasympa-thetic nerve stimulation and of Walker (3, 4) on the use of physostigmine and prostigmin in myas-thenia gravis have stimulated interest in the cho-line-esterase activity of serum. Lucas, Hall, and Ettinger (5) studied the serum esterase activity of 200 subjects and obtained results that were in essential agreement with the earlier findings of Stedman, Stedman, and Easson (6) and the more recent ones of McGeorge (7) on 132 patients. Although wide variations occurred among the subjects, the esterase activity was found to be constant over periods of many weeks, and no correlation with any type of clinical syndrome