An investigation into methods of urine iodine analysis for use among villagers with goitre.

ABSTRACT

A modified Zak’s method has been used in this laboratory, but was subjected to contamination and produced occasional inconsistent results. Two simple ways for the determination of iodine in urine are herein described. The better one is by modified PAMM method. Briefly, destruction of organic matter in urine by acid digestion is carried out prior to determination by the Sandell and Kolthoff reaction. The Coefficient of Variation (CV) is below 10%. Iodine contents as low as 6.5 ug/L, can be detected. The proposed acid digestion procedure offers some advantages over the traditional acid digestion e.g. low iodine losses, not complicated, and less harsh digestion. The method does not require large samples (250 ul or below) and one technician can easily handle 100 samples per day. The results obtained by this method are well correlated between the simple methods and agree with those recorded by other workers. This is also in agreement with Zak’s method (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.55). The proposed method is rapid, simple, cheap and suitable for the research investigations on iodine deficiency goitre in areas where it is endemic.