Polarographic Studies of Human Blood Sera

R. BrdiEka, in 1937, in a note to the editor of Nature (1), reported the application of the polarographic method to cancer diagnosis, through the measurement of certain sulphur-containing amino acids present in the proteins in human blood serum. Brdicka made tests on the serum from 67 different persons; 32 of these gave an abnormally low polarographic protein effect. These 32 cases were shown by medical examination to be carcinomatous. Since such information merited further independent investigation, arrangements were made to test blood not only from normal subjects and from cancer patients, but also from persons suffering from a variety of other pathological conditions. For this purpose a polarographic apparatus was used which had been built for one of the authors by the Leeds and Northrup Co. in 1935. Tests were made on blood serum samples from 114 cancer patients, 94 normal subjects, and 174 miscellaneous pathological cases. After this investigation was well under way, another note by Brditka ( 2 ) recommended a modified test and called attention to the fact that fever and inflammation may also cause a reduction in the wave height of the effect. Later, in a more comprehensive report (3), still another procedure was described, but for several reasons it was decided to continue the present investigation using the two procedures initially recommended by BrdiEka, so as to obtain an acceptable number of data for analysis. This is, therefore, in the nature of a preliminary report.