A Method in Field Measurement of Urinary Iodine

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine a very cheap, reliable, relatively rapid portable field unit for quantitative urinary iodine measurements. As Individual Urine Excretion (IUE) approximate those of Daily Iodine Intake (DII), iodine deficiency can be measured in casual urine samples of individual. Using the criteria, the frying pot method has been introduced and modified from the long and tedious Zak’s method after Pino et al, and Robbins and Dunn et al. This modified method has many advantages. The assay takes 84 tubes of urine per pot in 100 oC paraffin oil and changes into water. It has been shortened from one hour to 25 minutes. Change of to intermediate violet is observed by adding ferroine as the indicator, resulting in a standard curve reading the concentration of iodine in micrograms per liter. The results of 255 subjects from Mukdaharn Province indicate the reliability of the method as the results are the same as those in the heating block and spectrophotomete. This has been confirmed by the results of 1,007 samples. This new technique provides good results; between oil and water, the results on using water are even better. This modification reduces significantly by lowering the cost of equipment. It is rapid, simple and reliable. The method is portable and valuable for measuring and monitoring iodine deficiency studies and for epidemiological studies of iodine deficiency its control in developing countries.