The content of chemical elements in the urine of neonatal infants in health and perinatal diseases

Abstract

The urine content of heavy metals was examined in 113 newborns aged 7 to 15 days, living in Moscow and the Moscow region. Ten infants were healthy; 103 babies had perinatal infectious and non-infectious diseases. Uranium, gallium and zirconium were not detected in any urine sample. Arsenic, lead, cobalt, bismuth, antimony, indium, and molybdenum were absent in the urine of healthy newborns, but could be present in various abnormalities (tracheobronchitis, pneumonia, congenital malformations, intrauterine growth retardation, conjugated jaundice, systemic edema syndrome, hemorrhagic syndrome, aspiration syndrome, respiratory distress syndrome). The concentration of chemical elements in the urine of infants with different diseases increased by 5—698% compared to the upper limit of normal and the rate of their concentration increase was encountered in 11-100% of the patients. The greatest changes in the composition and concentration of chemical elements occurred in pneumonia, congenital malformations, and hemorrhagic syndrome. The typical spectrum of elements was noted in each disease. Nickel, cadmium, molybdenum, lead, and tin were most common (in 25% to 71% of the newborns), antimony was least common (in 13% to 17%). Chromium, titanium, barium, silicon, copper, aluminum, boron, and silver were also more often present in the urine of the sick babies than in that of the healthy ones.