MANGANESE LEVELS IN SERUM OF HEALTHY VENEZUELAN INFANTS LIVING IN MERIDA

Taking up where a previous paper had left off (10) the purpose of this study was to examine in further detail the serum concentration of man ganese of 180 apparently healthy Venezuelan infants (96 boys and 84 gi rls) ranging from 5 days to 12 months old, all residents of Merida. Th e flow injection analysis-atomic absorption spectrophotometric techniq ue was used for the determination of manganese. The mean values of ser um manganese were 0.42+/-0.12, 0.41+/-0.11, 0.39+/-0.13, 0.39+/-.1, 0. 38+/-0.09. 0.37+/-0.11, 0.36+/-0.12 and 0.29+/-0.10 mu g/L in infants 5 days and 1,3,5,7,10,11 and 12 months old, respectively. These values indicate that the average concentration of manganese in serum decreas es with age, but the mechanism involved is not yet known, nor are the consequences of the decrease. The statistical analysis did not show an y significant influence of sex on the serum value of the metal in the age range of 5 days to 12 months.