Originally published in J. Clin. Lab. Invest. 6, 261 (1954) 



65. NOTE ON THE DETERMINATION OF RADIOIRON 



K. Agner, R. Bonnichsen and G. Hevesy 



From the Chemical Department, Seraf imerlasarettet ; Biochemical Department, 

 Medical Nobel Institute, and Institute for Biochemistry, Stockholms Hogskola, 



Stockholm 



Shortly after radioiron became available, Hahn, Bale, Lawrence 

 and Whipple (1939) applied this radioisotope with much success to the 

 study of the absorption and distril)ution of iron in the animal body. 

 An analytical method was devised by Hahn, Bale and Balfour (1942) 

 which permits the determination of the iron content of a tissue fraction 

 and its radioactivity. Following wet ashing of the tissue and after addition 

 of a known amount of carrier the solution is electrolysed and the iron 

 deposited on a copper planchet which is then placed under the Geiger 

 counter. The yield of electroplating is tested by dissolving the electro- 

 plated iron in acid and carrying out a colorimetric determination of the 

 solution. 



Table 1. — Added and Recovered 

 Radioiron ^®Fb as Ferrichloride was 

 pipetted into test tubes, 500 micro- 

 gram of carrier iron added, and 

 THE Procedure described in the 

 Text Carried out 



Though this analytical method proved to be of great importance in 

 radioiron studies, we were induced to replace it by a much more rapid, 

 simple, and certainly not less exact one since a long series of radioiron 

 determinations in numerous tissue fractions was to be carried out. 



The new procedure is based on (a) colorimetric determination of the 

 iron content of a solution of a tissue fraction after wet ashing, (b) addition 



