The atomic absorption spectrophotometer

An atomic absorption spectrophotometric method is described for estimat ing gold in diluted serum. Matrix effects are compensated by adding pro-tein to the working standards. Additional Keyphrases chrysotherapy The therapeutic use of gold compounds is of considerable antiquity, as discussed by Nineham (1); it has been used for the treatment of rheuma-toid arthritis since 1927 (2). Treatment in the past has been largely empirical. Until the advent of the atomic absorption spectrophotometer the estimation of gold in biological fluids by classical chemical or other methods was beyond the capa-bility of the clinical laboratory. Since then a num-ber of authors have reported the estimation of gold in serum by atomic absorption spectroscopy (2). Few details of the method of Frajola and Mitchell (2) are given; Lorber et al. (3) use an internal standard method which, while it success-fully compensates for matrix effects, requires relatively large amounts of serum. A. A. Dietz and H. M. Rubenstein, on the other hand, used a 1:1 dilution of serum and recognized the considerable matrix effects attributable to the presence of pro-tein [Serum gold analysis. CLIN. CHEM. 15, 78