ASSESSMENT OF THE USEFULNESS OF THE PIGE METHOD TO DETERMINE NITROGENIN HUMAN BLOOD-SERUM

Proton-induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE) analysis has been applied to the determination of total nitrogen concentration of blood sera from h ospital patients. Both the reaction N-14(p,p'gamma)N-14, E(gamma) = = 2313 keV, and the reaction N-15(p,alpha gamma)C-12, E(gamma) = 4439 ke V, have been used. From 37 patients, the range of the nitrogen concent rations obtained was 9.54-16.3 g/l with a mean of 12.0 g/l. The corres ponding total protein concentrations varied between 59 and 96 g/l, mea sured in a clinical laboratory autoanalyser using the biuret method. T he range of the albumin concentrations was 29-46 g/l. The nitrogen con centrations correlated well with the total protein concentrations (r = 0.802). The multiple correlation of nitrogen versus (albumin + (total protein-albumin)) gives a coefficient of 0.175 for albumin and 0.161 for total protein-albumin. The results agree with expectations and sup port the potential usefulness of the rapid PIGE method for medical stu dies.