[The antipyrine test in occupational medicine research--evaluation of individual reproducibility and frequency distribution of half-life].

The antipyrine half-life is a reliable index of biotransformation capacity of the liver. The half-lives were estimated in 137 subjects; the result was a logarithmic normal distribution of these parameters. Therefore our patients were subdivided into groups of so-called fast, intermediate and slow metabolisers (fast: t50 less than 7.6 h and slow: t50 greater than 14.9 h). Under conditions given here the intraindividual coefficient of variation was about 11.5%. The antipyrine elimination curves were calculated by a computer programme and the values were analysed statistically.