Abstract
Iron represents 0.335% by weight of the hemoglobin molecule. 1 Using this factor, blood hemoglobin may be estimated in grams per 100 cc. by the blood iron method as accurately as by the accepted oxygen capacity method. 2 Different standards representing 100% hemoglobin must be adopted for men, 3 women 3 and children. 4 The figure for the milligrams of iron per 100 cc. of blood may be converted into percentage hemoglobin by multiplying by 2 for men, by 2.25 for women, and by 2.5 for children.
Calibration of clinical hemoglobinometers such as the Dare and the Newcomer instruments is facilitated by using the blood iron method in preference to more complicated standardized methods. Simplification of procedures for determining blood iron even makes possible their use routinely in clinical laboratories. In view of these facts it is of utmost importance to have definite assurance of the accuracy of the method employed for the determination of blood iron.
We wish to report a comparative study of 2 different methods we have employed for blood iron in an effort to determine the normal range of this element in the blood of men, women, and children. One method involved the original Wong wet ashing procedure and the other method involved a dry ashing process.
Fowweather, 5 Smirk, 6 Kennedy, 7 Wong, 8 and others have reported slightly different wet ashing methods for determining blood iron in which the organic material is oxidized by an acid in combination with a strong oxidizing agent. The value of these methods lies in their simplicity and the speed with which the determinations may be made.
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