Normal Human Serum Fluoride Concentrations

Abstract

TAVES¹ has indicated that our method² for estimation of serum fluoride content based on diffusion of hydrogen fluoride gives results which are about ten times too large, but our values³ of human plasma fluoride content, which he quotes, were not obtained by the diffusion method but by an entirely different procedure⁴ which requires ashing of the sample with magnesium oxide followed by separation of the fluoride by distillation from perchloric acid. The agreement of the results for fluoride analyses of urine, bovine plasma, dentine, liver and muscle obtained by the two procedures¹, which are quite different in principle, furnishes mutual support of the reliability and accuracy of both methods. Nevertheless, we have carried out further experiments, some of which are like those reported by Taves, and our evidence is that both of our methods give results for plasma fluoride content which are not markedly in error.