Cadmium concentrations in human liver, blood, and bile: comparison with a metabolic model.

Cadmium concentrations in liver biopsies, blood, and bile were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in 23 patients in connection with routine gallstone operations. On a group basis cadmium in blood was a good indicator of cadmium in liver, and the estimated linear relationship agreed well with calculations from a formerly proposed metabolic model. Cadmium in bile was also analyzed, and an average of about 2.5 ng of Cd/g wet weight was found. This is about 10 times more than would have been expected form the metabolic model and suggests that bile might be an important excretion route for cadmium. Definite conclusions cannot be drawn, however, since the results could not be cross-checked with neutron activation analysis, due to insufficient sensitivity of the latter method.