Rösick, Rösick, Brätter and Kynast: Determination of zinc in amniotic fluid

Taking the necessary precautions essential for accurate trace element analysis, the zinc concentrations of 227 samples of amniotic fluid taken at term were determined by means of neutron activation analysis. Half of the zinc was found to be bound to the particles present in amniotic fluid. In the control group (123 cases) the zinc concentrations ranged from 25—261 g/l for untreated samples and from 14—143 g/l when the samples were centrifuged for 10 min at 22000g prior to analysis. The values showed log-normal frequency distributions and were lower than any of the values published in the literature to date.