Recovery of cyanide from blood using a gass-phase mini-circulation apparatus and cyanide colorimetry by modified pyridine-pyrazolone method.

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Abstract
A gas phase mini-circulation apparatus was made and used to release hydrogen cyanide from test blood (lml) containing cyanide (CN-) by addition of 3 ml of 13.3% phosphoric acid (final concentration: 10%) at 70.degree. C; the hydrogen cyanide was then absorbed with cooled 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution (5 ml) during gas-phase circulation for 20 min. The amount of cyanide absorbed by the 0.1 N sodium hydroxide solution was determined by a modified pyridine-pyrazolone method at 50.degree. C to accelerate the color development. The minimal detectable quantity of cyanide by the proposed colorimetry was 0.1 .mu.g/ml blood. A linear relationship was observed between the absorbance and the amount of cyanide in blood within the range of 0.1-2.5 .mu.g (3.8-96.1 nmol). The recovery was 97.9% and the precision was 2.0% (n = 10) when blood (1 ml) containing cyanide (1.2 .mu.g/ml) was used as the test sample. The present method required only 1 h for determination of cyanide in 1 ml of blood. The concentration of cyanide in blood samples from 5 persons who had died from cyanide poisoning and from 9 who had succumed in fires were determined by the present method. Significant amounts of cyanide (2.0-22.8 .mu.g/ml, 76.9-876.2 nmol/) were present in the majority of victims of cyanide poisoning in contrast with the much lower amounts (0-4.9 .mu.g/ml, 0-188. 3 nmol/l) in fire victims.

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