ANTIMONY IN BLOOD AND URINE OF INFANTS

Aim-To establish a reference range for antimony in the serum and urine of infants in the first year of life. Methods-100 infants were select ed randomly from the population. Each infant had a single blood and ur ine sample taken. Antimony was assayed using inductively coupled plasm a mass spectrometry. Results-The reference range for antimony in the s erum of infants in the first year of life was established as 0.09-0.25 mu g/l. The upper 95% centile for urinary antimony, corrected for cre atinine, in the same population was 2.6 ng/mg creatinine. There was a very weak correlation between the serum and urine concentrations. Conc lusions-This study confirms the presence of low concentrations of anti mony in the serum and urine of healthy infants.