To the Editor: The paper of Jayo Rao in the November issue of the Journal (110:519-522, 1965) has stimulated me to review some data I have collected on patients with marasmus. It is of interest that while my findings are in agreement with those of the author regarding the effects of epinephrine, ie, that marasmic infants show a sharp response, my figures for fasting blood sugar values are very different.
In patients with kwashiorkor, the fasting blood sugar value in 20 patients ranged from 10 to 72 mg/100 ml, with a mean value of 51 mg/100 ml.1 This contrasted with a series of normal controls who ranged from 55 to 80 mg/100 ml, with a mean of 66 mg/100 ml. This difference is significant, but there is a marked overlap with the normal range. These findings have been confirmed by Baig and Endozien. In marasmic patients the difference is