[Determination of silver and cerium in the liver and the kidney from a severely burned infant treated with silver sulfadiazine and cerium nitrate]

Abstract

Silver and cerium in the liver and the kidney from severely burned infant were analyzed by neutron activation method. The patient was treated topically with cerium nitrate/silver sulfadiazine cream and cerium nitrate solution for 3 months. Then, the treatment with these drugs was stopped because of abdominal distention. The patient died 1 month after the cessation of the treatment with these drugs. The tissue specimens, blank liver sample and reference standards were irradiated with TRIGA MARK II Reactor of Rikkyo University. About 1 month after the irradiation, the activities were measured with a Ge(Li) detector coupled to a 4096 channel pulse height analyzer. A large amount of silver was detected both in the liver and in the kidney and a trace of cerium only in the liver. A considerable amount of silver was detected in the liver and its quantity was about 1600 times more than that of normal livers reported by Hamilton, Minski and Cleary (1972-73). Neither silver nor cerium were detected in the blank liver. These results suggest that prolonged topical chemotherapy of cerium nitrate/silver sulfadiazine cream and cerium nitrate solution for the extensive burn injuries causes considerable absorption of silver and cerium into the liver and the kidney.