Spectrophotometric determination of lithium in blood serum with thoron.
Lithium is determined in blood serum by reaction with thoron [1-(o-arsenophenylazo)-2-naphthol-3, 6-disulphonic acid, sodium salt] in an alkaline acetone medium. A bathochromic shift in the thoron spectrum results and the change in absorbance at 480 nm is measured against the reagent as reference. Proteins are removed with trichloroacetic acid, and the effect of serum electrolyte is compensated for by adding a synthetic serum electrolyte to the reagent blank. Results of analysis of serum samples from manic depressive patients by this method agree with atomic-absorption spectroscopy results with an average error of -1.1% for forty samples, with a correlation coefficient of 0.987.
Trautman
J K
JK
Department of Chemistry, BG-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, U.S.A.
Gadzekpo
V P
VP
Christian
G D
GD