Quantitative Assay of Umbilical Cord Blood Porphyrins - a Spectrophotometric Study

Quantitative assay of free erythrocyte porphyrins was done in umbilical cord blood of 100 newborn babies by spectrophotometric method. The mean level of free erythrocyte protoporphyrin in umbilical cord blood was found to be74.56 ug/100 ml packed erythrocytes with a standard deviation of +- 0.93 respectively. Relationship between free erythrocyte coproporphyrin and their correlation with period of gestation, birth weight and sex of the new borns were found to be statistically significant.