Serum analysis of coronary heart disease patients by instrumental neutron activation analysis

Due to changes of the dietary pattern and the life style, cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease (CHD) has been increased in Korea. In this study, the levels of serum mineral such as Na, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Zn and Se for 75 patients with CHD and 25 normal persons who were older than the age of 40 were investigated by instrumental neutron activation analysis. For an analytical quality control, the reference materials, INSPQ and seronorm, were analyzed, simultaneously. The relative errors of the analytical values for the reference materials are agreed well within 10% of the certified values. The average concentrations of Na, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Zn and Se in the serum of male patients were 2,850±260 mg/L, 3,400±310 mg/L, 160±30 mg/L, 80.9±11.7 mg/L, 1.57±0.73 mg/L, 0.094±0.019 mg/L and 0.795±0.163 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of Na, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Zn and Se in the serum of female patients were 2,890±240 mg/L, 3,430±350 mg/L, 169±27 mg/L, 81.8±13.0 mg/L, 1.26±0.44 mg/L, 0.099±0.015 mg/L and 0.769±0.105 mg/L, respectively. In a comparison between the patients and the normal group for both genders, while the levels of elemental concentrations such as Na, Cl, K, Ca, Fe and Se were similar, the Zn concentration of the CHD patients was significantly lower than that of normal persons.