Automated Determination of Serum Iron

Abstract

A modification of the automated method of Zak Epstein for determination of serum iron is described. The main improvements of the system are: 1. Better wash between the samples by means of citrate solution instead of water. 2. A more efficient dialysis achieved by complexing the dialyzed ferrous ion in the recipient stream, enabling the use of single dialysis instead of the original double dialysis.

As a consequence of these improvements the flow line has been shortened, thus decreasing the possibility of cross-contamination and allowing an analysis rate of 30 per hour instead of 20 per hour. Furthermore, the sensitivity has been increased so that the necessary sample volume can be reduced from 2 ml to 0.8 ml and still yield higher readings than in the original method.

The data for precision, accuracy and reliability, as well as the results from the recovery tests, are presented and discussed.

Key Words:

• Automation
• iron
• spectrophotometry