Severe metabolic acidosis early in paracetamol poisoning.

Abstract

Fasting venous blood was collected at 9 am into cooled heparinised tubes and centrifuged immediately, the plasma being stored at -20°C until assay.Calcitonin was measured in the plasma by direct immunoassay5 (five days of incubation) with a detection limit of 6-0 pg/tube and an intra-assay varia- tion of under 10%.All samples were assayed at the same time.Statistical evaluation was with the x2 test for variables with large numbers of undetectable values and the correlation calculated with Spearman's correlation coefficient.