Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
In a population study (NHANES) in the United
States, the 95th percentile of the urinary platinum con-
centrations was below the detection limit of the method,
40 ng/L (
n
= 2465, age, 6 years and older) (CDC, 2005).
In Austria, values <1 ng Pt/L urine are reported
for unexposed people (number of subjects not given)
(Adeloju
et al
., 1990). In the United Kingdom, offi ce
workers (
n
= 5) had 129 ng Pt/L in the blood and 113 ng
Pt/g creatinine in the urine (Farago
et al
., 1998). Iavi-
coli
et al
. (2004a) reported a mean urinary platinum
concentration 4.56 ng/L in 58 people from Italy. They
found a statistical difference between female and
males (4.09
vs
5.77 ng/L,
P
= 0.004). The subjects older
than 40 years of age (
n
= 28) showed statistically signifi -
cantly higher mean platinum concentrations in urine
than those of younger colleagues (
n
= 21,
P
= 0.03).
In Budapest and Vienna, platinum concentrations in
the urine of adult inhabitants without occupational
exposure were on average 10.1 ± 8.8 and 3.7 ± 4.3 ng/g
creatinine (
n
= 100), respectively (Záray
et al
., 2004).
In the urine of urban children in Italy, the platinum
concentrations were 0.9 ± 1.1 ng/g creatinine, and they
were not associated with traffi c density in the area of
residence (Caroli
et al
., 2001).
The serum platinum concentration in Germany in
nonexposed person was 6.35 ng/L (median; range,
<5.0-42.1 ng/L, number of subjects not given) (Mer-
get
et al
., 1999). In Italy, the blood platinum level was
10 ± 2 ng/L, in urine 5 ± 0.1 ng/L in urine, and 50 ± 8 ng/k
hair (
n
= 25) (Petrucci
et al
., 2005).
The liver platinum concentrations were 0.05-
0.24 ng/g (Zeisler and Greenberg, 1982). The platinum
concentration in human breast tissue was <0.05 ng/g
(wet weight), but higher levels ranging from 25-90ng/g
were detected in fi brin layer and fat tissue of two
patients with breast prostheses (Flassbeck
et al
., 2003).
concentrations of platinum seem to be higher when the
exposure is high (Petrucci
et al
., 2005), no quantitative
correlation between air platinum concentration and
platinum concentration in biological fl uids has been
reported; thus, quantitative estimates of occupational
exposure cannot be derived from biological monitor-
ing—which thus is limited to the identifi cation of pop-
ulations exposed at work. In a small prospective study,
concentrations of platinum in the plasma were not
predictive of the development of platinum sensitivity
(Merget
et al
., 2002).
The best separation of different exposure groups
was achieved from the analysis of the urine of the
workers at a catalyst production factory (Petrucci
et al
.,
2005); thus, urine platinum measurements are likely
to provide the best starting point for the development
of validated biomonitoring of platinum and platinum
compounds.
On the other hand, elevated serum platinum con-
centrations have been reported among patients treated
with cisplatin (where the exposures are much higher):
20 years after the treatment, elevated serum platinum
concentrations were still observed in treated patients
(treated,
n
= 61 64.9 ± 24.5 ng Pt/kg, controls,
n
= 18,
<6 ng Pt /kg plasma) (Gietema
et al
., 2000). Large dif-
ferences in urinary platinum concentrations have been
reported among nurses in oncology departments. This
range can be explained by differences in handling
practices, protection, and use of safety hoods or alter-
nate closed systems both during the preparation and
administration of cytostatics.
6
EFFECTS IN ANIMALS AND HUMANS
AN
D DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSH
IPS
Platinum is not an essential element for microbes,
plants, animals, or humans. Platinum readily com-
plexes
in vitro
with O-, N-, and S-containing ligands
such as ethers and thiocarbamide. Therefore, plati-
num ions would not be expected to occur free in living
organisms.
5.3
Biological Monitoring
No validated methods are available for effect
monitoring of platinum compounds. However, a sig-
nifi cant correlation was observed between the number
of neutrophils or epithelial cells and platinum con-
centration in the nasal lavage fl uid of children (Schins
et al
., 2004).
Environmental exposure to platinum cannot be
reliably assessed by biomonitoring, because leaching
from dental devices is a much more important source
of platinum than environmental exposure (Becker
et al
., 2003). For the biological monitoring of exposure
to platinum in occupational settings, blood, serum,
and urine specimens have been used. Information
from studies in which the analytical methods used
are reliable is given in Table 2. Although generally the
6.1
Acute Toxicity
Metallic platinum has low acute toxicity. Fine metal-
lic platinum dust orally administrated to rats caused
slight necrotic changes in the gastrointestinal epithe-
lium, granular dystrophy of hepatocytes, and swelling
in the epithelium of the convoluted renal tubules, with
no lethal effect (IPCS, 1991). After intrauterine applica-
tion, platinum wire or foil only caused local effects, con-
sidered to be due to the physical presence of a foreign
object in the uterus (Barlow and Sullivan, 1982).
