Estimation of the Bromide Space With a Modification of Conway's Method

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Abstract
A rapid and accurate method for determining serum bromide on 1 ml. of serum containing 1-2 mEq of bromide/1. is described. The method is a modification of the microdiffusion technic of Conway, and it can be adapted to the estimation of bromide within the red cells. The bromide space corrected for erythrocyte bromide is about 20% of body wt. in young adults. High values were obtained in edematous patients and low values in one excessively fat adult. Because of the slow urinary excretion, and the rapid equilibrium with extracellular fluids, the bromide space should prove a useful research method. The difficulties of measurement of extracellular space are briefly discussed. At present, no method is satisfactory and the bromide space cannot be equated with the extracellular space without further studies to define the intracellular bromide penetration of cells other than erythrocytes.