Mercury in human brain, blood, muscle and toenails in relation to exposure: an autopsy study

Table 2 Results from determinations of methylmercury, inorganic mercury and total mercury in tissues.

Tissue	Analyte ^a	Median	Mean ^b	SD	Min	Max	10-percentile	90-percentile
Blood (v. femoralis) (μg/L)	T-Hg	3.3	5	5.3	0.9	27.4	1.4	12.5
	I-Hg	1.0	2.3	4.2	0.1	22.4	0.2	5.2
	MeHg	2.2	2.7	2.3	0.3	10.9	0.9	6.2
Occipital cortex (μg/kg)	T-Hg	12	18	32	1	181	5	28
	I-Hg	5	12	29	2	164	3	18
	MeHg	4	6	6	<D.L.^c	28	1	16
Abdominal muscle (μg/kg)	T-Hg	3	5	6	0.3	29	0.9	12
Thyroid gland (n = 28) (μg/kg)	T-Hg	19	55	186	2.7	1000	5.1	47
Pituitary gland (μg/kg)	T-Hg	43	200	540	4.9	2900	12	460
Toenails (n = 29) (μg/kg)	T-Hg	236	280	214	64	856	67	624

a) T-Hg: Total mercury concentration; I-Hg: Inorganic mercury concentration; MeHg: Methylmercury concentration
b) Samples with concentrations below detection limit were given a value of half the detection limit of the actual analytical run
c) Detection Limit

ISSN: 1476-069X