The Present Status of Chelating Agents in Medicine

This chapter describes methods of treating heavy metal intoxication. The chapter discusses the common ground between different approaches to chelation therapy rather than to be over-concerned with the details of individual metal toxicity and its treatment. The chapter also discusses some other medical applications of chelating agents that have become prominent in the past few years. Present treatment of acute iron and lead poisoning is usually gratifyingly successful and a few new agents have been found which appear to have considerable potential. Special attention must be devoted to this interrelationship if metal complexation in areas of medicine other than chelation therapy is to be effectively exploited. The therapeutic potential of chelating agents as a class of compounds is thus, probably, unparalleled. However, all depends on the future design of agents with sufficient chemical and physical selectivity to achieve very specific biochemical objectives.