Abstract

The problem of heavy metal toxicity is a burning issue all over the world and more prominent in countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Often times, it is seen that the people of the affected areas are unaware of the toxic effects of these metals. Medical practitioners at the same time did not investigate the presence of heavy metals in the body. The present study aims to analyze the concentration of toxic heavy metals in different body fluids and their correlation with other medical investigations. The amounts of heavy metals viz Cu, Pb, Mn and Ni in random patients suffering from liver, kidney and heart diseases of Mayo Hospital Lahore have been investigated with the help of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The routine medical tests and treatment was performed in the same hospital while the analysis of heavy metals was done in GC University Lahore. The values of selected heavy metals are high in patients as compared to their allowed or standard values. The value of Mn was between 0.36 to 24.16 ppm, for Pb the values were between 2.10 to 24.79 ppm, for Ni it was 2.33 to 243.59 ppm and for Cu the values of these were between 3.10 to 18.83 ppm. All these values were much greater than the allowed limits.

Key words: Heavy metals, diseases, Mayo Hospital.