Determination of Zinc, Copper, Cadmium and Lead in Serum of Patients with Acute Leukemia

Abstract

The relations between malignant hematological diseases and trace heavy metals in blood have not been understood clearly. Alterations in serum Zn and Cu levels may frequently occur in many neoplastic diseases, including leukemia. Therefore, it is necessary from an analytical point of view to develop sensitive and economical methods for the determination of trace amount of heavy metals and the relationship between changes in concentrations of these metals and the development of hematological malignancies. Differential Pulse Stripping Voltammetry (DPAdSV) is relatively inexpensive and is one of the most sensitive and selective techniques in the determination of trace amounts of metals. The levels of heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd were determined in the serum of 20 patients with acute leukemia before initial chemotherapeutic treatment and compared to 15 apparently health control group using two different analytical techniques; (DPAdSV) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The selection criteria for the patients and controls were the lack of recent blood transfusion history and taking any medication with mineral supplement. The Serum levels of Cu, Zn and Cd were significantly lower with acute leukemia than controls (p=0.003, p=0.035, p=0.014, respectively), while Pb was insignificantly elevated (p=0. 381). Conclusion: In this study, we found the levels of Cu, Zn and Cd to be lowered and of lead to be elevated in patients with acute leukemia. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of these elements in pathogenesis of acute leukemia. And also a comparative study was carried out between the results using DPAdSV and ICP-OES techniques, which are in very good agreement. Keywords-Acute Leukemia, Serum, Stripping Voltammetry, Zinc