[The mineral element content of the blood in healthy persons living in regions of endemic goiter and Urov (Kashin-Bek) disease].

Atomic-absorption spectrophotometry was used to study blood sera of 135 healthy people aged 18 to 60 years, living under the conditions of continental climate with trace elements and iodine deficiency in the environment. The changes in the content of minerals in the peripheral blood were discovered to be related to the age, characterized in most cases by a decrease of their content with age. The data given in the paper confirm the reduction of trace elements to the lower limits of normal in all the age groups living in the Western regions of this country.