Use of fluorescence, chemiluminescence, and spectrophotometry in medicine

A review is given of the research work carried out at the Institute concerning the use of fluorometry, luminometry, and spectrophotometry in toxicology and other specific fields of scientific and practical medicine. Fluorescence has been applied in the development of analytical methods for the determination of porphyrin in biological material. In this connection some important physico-chemical properties of porphyrin have been investigated. The fluorescence of the oxidation products of indole, as well as the chemiluminescence of luminol and lucigenin have been used for the determination of poisons based on the esters of phosphoric and thiophosphoric acids. Chemiluminescence has also been employed for the study of the properties of oximes in relation to their antidote action, for proving blood stains, and for differentiating different kinds of hemoglobin {Hb-A, Hb-F, cat Hb). A special form of spectrophotometry has been used for the quantitative determination of carbamate insecticides. - For all this work corresponding photoelectric fluorimeters and luminometers have been constructed at the Institute