Study of chemical element behavior in health and disease by means of neutron activation analysis and multivariate statistics.

An attempt was undertaken to estimate the contribution of individual chemical elements to the rise of arterial hypertension. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used to determine the concentrations of 23 chemical elements in hair of patients and healthy subjects. Mean concentrations as well as relationships between elements in both groups were calculated and compared. Discriminant function was obtained, which allows the division of patients and healthy subjects into two groups.