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International unit
In pharmacology, the International Unit is a unit of measurement for the amount of a substance, based on biological activity or effect. It is abbreviated as IU, as UI (Spanish unidad internacional or French unit internationale or Italian unit internazionale), or as IE (German Internationale Einheit, Danish International Enhed, Swedish Internationell Enhet). It is used to quantify vitamins, hormones, some medications, vaccines, blood products, and similar biologically active substances. Many biological agents exist in different forms or preparations (e.g. vitamin A in the form of retinol or beta-carotene). The goal of the IU is to be able to compare these, so that different forms or preparations with the same biological effect will contain the same number of IUs. To do so, the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization provides a reference preparation of the agent, arbitrarily sets the number of IUs contained in that preparation, and specifies a biological procedure to compare other preparations of the same agent to the reference preparation. Since the number of IUs contained in a new substance is arbitrarily set, there is no equivalence between IU measurements of different biological agents. For instance, one IU of vitamin E cannot be equated with one IU of vitamin A in any way, including mass or efficacy. Despite its name, IU is not part of the International System of Units used in physics and chemistry. The IU should not be confused with the enzyme unit, also known as the International unit of enzyme activity and abbreviated as U. In order to remove the possibility of having the letter "I" confused with the digit "1", some hospitals have it as a stated policy to omit the "I", that is, to only use U or E when talking and writing about dosages, while other hospitals require the word "Units" to be written out entirely.
Mass equivalents of 1 IU
For some substances, the precise mass equivalent of one IU is later established. If that happens, the former IU mass for that substance is officially abandoned in favor of a newly established mass. The unit count often will still remain in use. Insulin: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of about 45.5 g pure crystalline insulin (1/22mg exactly). This corresponds to the old USP insulin unit, first suggested by Frederick Banting et.al. in 1922,[5] where one unit (U) of insulin is equal to the amount required to reduce the concentration of blood glucose in a fasting rabbit to 0.045 per cent (45mg/dL or 2,5mmol/L) within 4 hours. Vitamin A: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of 0.3 g retinol, or of 0.6 g beta-carotene[6][7] Vitamin C: 1 IU is 50 g L-ascorbic acid Vitamin D: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of 0.025 g cholecalciferol/ergocalciferol
International unit Vitamin E: 1 IU is the biological equivalent of about 0.667 mg d-alpha-tocopherol (2/3mg exactly), or of 1mg of dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate
References
[1] Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists (Dec 1992). "Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists position paper: standardization of selected polypeptide hormone measurements.". Clin Biochem. 25 (6): 41524. doi:10.1016/0009-9120(92)90030-V. PMID1477965. [2] Jeffcoate SL (1988). "What are we measuring in gonadotropin assays?". Acta Endocrinol Suppl (Copenh). 288: 2830. PMID3048031. [3] Wicher JT (1991). "Calibration is the key to immunoassay but the ideal calibrator is unattainable.". Scand J Clin Lab Invest Suppl. 205: 2132. PMID1947745. [4] Ekins R (1991). "Immunoassay standardization". Scand J Clin Lab Invest Suppl. 205: 3346. PMID1947747. [5] F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, J. J. R. Macleod, and E. C. Noble (1922). "The Effect of Pancreatic Extract (Insulin) on Normal Rabbits" (http:/ / ajplegacy. physiology. org/ cgi/ reprint/ 62/ 1/ 162?maxtoshow=& hits=10& RESULTFORMAT=& author1=banting& andorexactfulltext=and& searchid=1& FIRSTINDEX=0& volume=62& resourcetype=HWCIT) (PDF). Am J Physiol. Legacy Content 62 (Sep): 162176. . (Link requires subscription). [6] Dietary Supplements Ingredient Database (http:/ / dietarysupplementdatabase. usda. nih. gov/ ingredient_calculator/ help. php#q2) [7] Dietary Reference Intakes Tables: Unit Conversion Factors (http:/ / www. hc-sc. gc. ca/ fn-an/ nutrition/ reference/ table/ index-eng. php#ucf)
External links
WHO reference preparations (http://www.who.int/biologicals/reference_preparations/en/)
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/