No abstract

THE existence of iron in the haemoglobin molecule has long been known. The discovery of a non-haemoglobin iron fraction in blood is of comparatively recent date. It was long overlooked in quantitative determinations of blood iron, for it is present in very small quantities as compared with the iron content of haemoglobin. Abderhalden in 1898 was the first lo discover that the total blood iron exceeded the values calculated from thc. liaemoglobin content, and correctly surmised that the blood must contain some iron that is not bound up in the haemoglobin molecule. A year later Hausermann was able to show that this non-haemoglobin iron was present in the plasma. These observations were confirmed and extended bv Font& and Thivolle (1925), whose painstaking studies so impressed subsequent workers that they are erroneously given the credit for having discovered what is to-day known as " serum iron " (Dahl, 1948). These original qualitative dis-

Acetyl-I-carnitine (LAC) was administered for 3 months, 2 gidaily, to 30 elderly patients with mild mental deterioration. Results were compared to those of a homogeneous control group of 28 patients treated with placebo. The study was carried out according to a double-blind, randomized methodology. A complete battery of rating scales and psychometric tests was used for for evaluating the modifications induced by either drug or placebo. The statistical evaluation of results showed a sufficient clear efficacy of the drug studied: results from patients on LAC were frequently different from those receiving placebo. Therefore, LAC must be taken into consideration as a useful drug for the global treatment of demented elderly patients.

This paper deals with a modification of the methods suggested by Rath and Finch (1949) and Cartwright and Wintrobe (1949) for the determination of the unsaturated iron-binding capacity of the serum. Transport of iron by the blood plasma may be effected through union with a 8,/-globulin contained in the IV-7 fraction of Cohn (1945); this fraction has been called siderophyllin (Schade and Caroline, 1946; Laurell, 1947; Surgenor, Koechlin, and Strong, 1949). Various methods of determination indicate that the amount of siderophyllin present in 100 ml. of normal plasma is sufficient to bind about 300 ,ug. of iron. Only about one-third of this protein is normally saturated with iron in the plasma or serum, the metal constituting the serum iron. The sum of the iron and the further amount of iron required to saturate all siderophyllin (unsaturated ironbinding capacity or U.I.B.C.) gives a measure of the total iron-binding capac'ity of the serum. Monasterio and Lattanzi (1943) and Waldenstrom (1944) measured the U.I.B.C. by the difference between serum iron levels before and after intravenous injection of an ionizable form of iron. Schade and Caroline (1946) employed a microbiological method based on the fact that Shigella dysenteriae grows only in the presence of ionized iron, and these authors noted the change in colour of the iron-binding protein when linked with the metal. Rath and Finch (1949) and Cartwright and Wintrobe (1949) estimated siderophyllin on the basis that the intensity of the red produced by union with iron is directly proportional to the amounts of the two components. .-q. q1%.- .-copyright.