Estimation of Sodium

ESTIMATION OF SODIUM - COLORIMETRIC METHOD

Principle

  • Sodium is quantitatively precipitated as uranyl magnesium sodium acetate and the excess of uranyl salt reacts with potassium ferrocyanide to produce a brownish color. The intensity of the color is inversely proportional to the sodium concentration in the sample.

Uranyl ions + Mg ions + Na+ → UranylMgNa Precipitate

Free Uranyl ions + K4Fe(CN)6 → Brown colored complex.

Reagents

  • Precipitating reagent
  • Acid Reagent
  • Color reagent
  • Sodium standard (150 mmol/l)

Procedure

  • I. Precipitation of Sodium and Protein

  • Pipette into two clean dry test tubes labelled as standard (S), and test (T) as follows:

Reagent

S

T

Standard

0.01ml

-

Serum

-

0.01ml

Precipitating reagent

0.50ml

0.50ml

Mix well and allow to stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Then centrifuge at 3000 rpm for 5 minutes to obtain a clean supernatant.

II. Color development

  • Pipette into clean, dry test tubes labelled blank (B), standard (S), and test (T) as follows:

S.No

Reagents

B (ml)

S (ml)

T (ml)

1.

Supernatant from above step

-

0.01

0.01

2.

Precipitating reagent

0.01

-

-

3.

Acid Reagent

0.50

0.50

0.50

4.

Colour reagent

0.05

0.05

0.05

5.

Deionised water

2.00

2.00

2.00

  • Mix well and allow the reaction mixture to stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Then measure the absorbance of blank (B), standard (S) and test (T) against distilled water at 530nm or with a green filter in a photoelectric colorimeter within 10 minutes.

Calculations

Sodium (mmol/L) =    (O.D of B (-) OD of T / O.D of B (-) OD of S) 150 mmol/l

Result

  • The sodium content of given serum = mmol / l or meq / l

Clinical Significance

Elevated sodium level is mainly found in conditions like

  • hyperadrenalism (Cushing’s syndrome).
  • Dehydration.

Low sodium level is found in the following conditions:

  • hypoadrenalism (Addison’s disease),
  • severe polyuria,
  • Metabolic acidosis
  • Diarrhoea
  • Renal diseases in which sodium reabsorption is defective.
Last modified: Monday, 4 June 2012, 6:00 AM