Comparison of effectiveness of four chelating agents in removing incorporated 241Am

The effectiveness of four chelating agents (Ca-DTPA, Zn-DTPA, quinamic acid and H-73-10) in removing incorporated 241Am was studied on 200 rats. The results show that Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA are more effective than the others. They decreased the 241Am contents in the rat liver and skeleton down to only about 5 and 10 per cent of the control values, respectively. Quinamic acid has the same effectiveness in reducing the 241Am contents in the rat skeleton and liver as that of DTPA, but it leads to the cumulation of 241Am in the kidney, i. e., the 241Am content in the kidney is even higher than that in control rats. Although H-73-10 can remove 241Am from the rat organs, it is much less effective than DTPA