Manganese toxicity

A highly sensitive and rapid method, based on latex agglutination, has been developed for measuring antithrombin III (AT III) in the blood serum of patients and donors. The sensitivity of analysis is 0.6 microgram/ml, time 2 to 3 min. The method is simple, requires no sophisticated equipment, and may be used under field conditions. The results are assessed visually. Immunochemical reagents have been synthesized for the method: latex conjugates and specific antibodies to AT III. The method was tried in patients with peritonitis. An additional criterion for diagnosing the respiratory distress syndrome of adults in this patient population has been developed.