Selenium status in Turkey

This study was initiated to evaluate the status of selenium in Turkish residents. Serum selenium level of 76 healthy children, living in Ankara, aged 2 mo-13 y was determined by a spectrofluorometric method. Average selenium level was found to be 88.1 +/- 12.4 micrograms/L (mean +/- SD). Selenium levels showed a tendency to increase with age and mean selenium level in early infancy was lower than that of school children; no relation to the sex and hematological parameters such as hemoglobin concentration and white blood cell counts were observed.