The Early Excretion, Retention and Distribution of Injected Curium Citrate in Beagles

Abstract

The behavior of curium has been studied in five young adult beagles from 0 to 57 days after the intravenous injection of 244Cm + 243Cm in citrate buffer. Total excretion during the first 3 weeks after injection was mainly urinary. Of the entire Cm eliminated in this 3 week collection period, nearly 5 appeared in the first day's urine. About five times more curium was excreted in the urine than in the feces on the first day. Following this, however, partitioning of curium between urine and feces in the daily excretion was more nearly equal. A combination of total-body and partial-body counting of the living dogs utilizing the 209, 228 and 278 keV gamma-rays of 243Cm indicated that at a week after injection about 35% of the injected Cm was deposited in the liver and about 53% was in non-liver tissue (mainly skeleton). Three of the dogs were sacrificed, one each at 6, 13 and 20 days after injection. Although the liver and skeleton accounted for the bulk of the retained curium, some other tissues exhibited significant Cm concentrations, particularly the thyroid.