The 57Co excretion and resorption test in the diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia

1971 Sorbie et al. described a simple 57Co-excretion test (16) as an aid in the diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia. The authors found that renal excretion of a tracer dosis of 0,5 μCi 57CoCl2 was significantly elevated in patients with iron deficiency anemia (31% of the adminstered dose in 24 hours' urine) as compared with the controls (18%). Between 1972-1974 we performed the 57Co-excretion test in 29 patients with different kind of anemia and in 10 healthy volunteers. The test was modified by measurement of the serum activity 1, 2, 3, 7, 11 and 24 hours after the oral administration of the test dosis. In all anemias as well as in the control group we found the maximum of serum activity three hours after the oral administration of the tracer. The three hours serum activity was elevated in patients with iron deficiency anemia (5.53%/l serum) as compared with the control group (1.92%/l) and renal, tumor and infectious anemia (1.20%/l) p < 0.01. The 57Co excretion was moderately elevated in most of the patients with iron deficiency anemia (average 31.5% 57Co-activity in 24 hours' urine) in comparison to the healthy controls (average 25.30%). Contrary to the results obtained by Sorbie et al. we found a wide range of fluctuation of the Co-excretion test in each group of patients with a poor statistical significance of p > 0.05. (orig.)