A study of relationship of element contents in human hair with some respiratory system diseases

19 elements, such as Ca, Mg, Fe, Se, Cu, Zn, etc., in hair of 65 patients with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema and cor-pulmonale diseases and 65 healthy people have been investigated by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The results show that the contents of Ca and Mg are lower and Fe, As and Co are higher in the hair of patients than in healthy persons. The contents of Ca and Mg are lower and Fe is higher in the hair of patients during attack periods of chronic bronchitis than in relaxed periods. The differences are significant (P<0.05–0.01). The content of Ca is closely related to that of Mg in hair (P<0.01). The contents of inorganic elements in the Chinese medicine cough and asthma capsule used to treat chronic bronchitis have been determined. The results show that the contents of elements Ca, Mg, Sr, etc., are higher in this medicine than the average amounts of these elements in 120 other Chinese medicines.