Biological trace element determinations

Versieck J, Vanballenberghe L, De Kesel A, et al. 1987. Accuracy of biological trace-element determination. Biol Trace Elem Res 12 45-54. 

Versieck J, Vanballenberghe L, de Kesel A, Baeck N, Steyart H, Byrne AR and Sunderman FW Jr. (1988) Certification of a second-generation biological reference material (freeze dried human serum) for trace element determinations. Anal Chim Acta 204 63-75. 

Nadkami, R.A. and W.D. Ehmann. 1970. Trace element determination in biological materials by neutron activation analysis. Pages 407-419 in D.D. Hemphill (ed.). Trace Substances in Environmental Health IV. Univ. Missouri, Columbia. 

Traceability and its role in interlaboratory comparisons (proficiency testing programmes), modeled on trace element determination in biological materials... 

K. Matsumoto, Speciation and determination of selenium and mercury accumulated in a Dolphin liver, in K. S. Subramanian, G. V. Iyengar, K. Okamoto, (eds), Biological Trace Element Research Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ACS Symposium Series, no. 445, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1991, pp. 278-289. 

Taylor, V., Jackson, B., Chen, C. Mercury speciation and total trace element determination of low-biomass biological samples. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 392, 1283-1290 (2008)... 

Miller-Ihli, N.J. Trace element determinations in foods and biological samples using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry and flame atomic absorption spectrometry. J. Agric. Food Chem. 44, 2675-2679 (1996)... 

Table 19.1. Examples of trace element determination in biological samples by isotope dilution in combination with substoichiometric isolation.

Suggested sample treatment methods which could be satisfactorily employed for specific human biological material prior to trace element determinations by different instrumental techniques are outlined below ... 

Baumann, H. (1992). Solid sampling with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry-a survey, Fres. Z. Anal. Chem. 342,907-916 Behne,D. and Matamba, P.A.(1975). Drying and ashing of biological samples in the trace element determination by NAA, Fres. Z. Anal. Chem. 274,195-197 Belcher, R. Macdonald,A.M.G. and West, T.S. (1958). The determination of metals in organic compounds by the closed flask method, Talanta 1, 408-410 Berman, E. (1980). Toxic metals and their analysis, Heyden, London... 

Neutron activation analysis is an invaluable technique for trace element determinations in biological matrices. Probabiy its most important advantage is its relative freedom from errors due to extraneous additions of exogenous materiai from reagents, equipment, or laboratory environment. Characteristics which contribute further to the popularity of the technique are its outstanding sensitivity, excellent specificity, and multielement capability. In principle, the technique is able to produce relatively unbiased and precise measurements — at least in competent hands. That it is, however, necessary to warn against uncritical expectations is illustrated by the grossly inconsistent results obtained in several laboratories. 

Future trends in trace element analysis will put even greater pressure on the need to provide unbiased determinations. Increasing interest in the role of trace elements in health and disease will provide the stimulus for the better provision of quantitative determinations on which important decisions are made (Centers for Disease Control, 1991 Moukarzel et al., 1992). Increased public awareness and legislation are likely to bring about substantial reductions in the currently acceptable levels of occupational and environmental exposure to some non-essential elements such as lead, cadmium and aluminium. Determinations that are made as part of the assessment of such exposure will need to be both carefully validated and reproducible over many years or decades (Braithwaite and Brown, 1988 Brown, 1991), which will have a serious impact on laboratory costs. However, reproducible trace element determination with a low bias in biological fluids represents the cornerstone of any proper understanding of the role of trace elements in human health and disease. 

Frenzel W, Bratter P (1987) Applications of electroanalytical flow analysis in the trace element determination of biological materials. In Bratter P, Schramel P (eds) Trace element analytical chemistry in medicine and biology. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, p 337 van den Berg CMG (1999) Determination of trace elements. Analysis by electrochemical methods. In Grasshoff K, Kremling K, Ehrhardt M (eds) Methods of seawater analysis. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, p 302 Kalvoda R (2000) Crit Rev Anal Chem 30 31 Mart L (1979) Fresenius Z Anal Chem 296 350 Barek J, Mejstfik V, Muck A, Zima J (2000) Crit Rev Anal Chem 30 37... 

Although Meinke (603) points out that automation in analytical chemistry is most desirable to remove the drawbacks of radiochemical separations in activation analysis, many other analysts who use activation analysis for trace element determinations in biological materials continue effective research on separation systems for a single element or a small group of elements with similar chemical characteristics for example, the methods and techniques in the publication by Gorsuch (338) have been used by many analysts in their activation analysis determinations of trace elements. Other successful microchemical techniques used in activation analysis have been described by Pijck and Hoste (713), Sion, Hoste, and Gillis (858), Girardi and Merlini (331), and Smales and Mapper (864). 

Activation analysis is one of the most sensitive and most accurate methods for the determination of the biological trace elements. It is a highly specific analytical method for the desired element yet it does not require a researcher to have a manipulative skill to complete an analysis. Besides being a specific method of analysis, activation analysis also has the advantages of a very high elemental sensitivity (for most of the elements) and it is essentially free of contamination unless that contaminant has been introduced into the test material prior to its bombardment in a source of nuclear particles. Analytical data can be obtained for each analysis with a very high degree of precision and accuracy. 

Activation Analysis of Biological Trace Elements (Leddicotte). Adenine, Enzymic Micro Determination, by Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry (Plesner and Kalckar). 

TABLE 4. Trace Element Determination by GC-MS in Biological Samples... 

Barnes RM (1991) Inductively coupled and other plasma sources determination and speciation of trace elements in biomedical applications. In Subramanian KS, Iyengar GV, Okamoto K (eds) Biological Trace Element Research Multidiscipli> nary Perspectives. ACS Series 445, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp 158-180. 

Baker, S. A., Bradshaw, D. K., and Miller-Ihli, N. J. (1999).Trace element determinations in food and biological samples using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. At. Spectrosc. 20(5), 167. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST is the source of many of the standards used in chemical and physical analyses in the United States and throughout the world. The standards prepared and distributed by the NIST are used to caUbrate measurement systems and to provide a central basis for uniformity and accuracy of measurement. At present, over 1200 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are available and are described by the NIST (15). Included are many steels, nonferrous alloys, high purity metals, primary standards for use in volumetric analysis, microchemical standards, clinical laboratory standards, biological material certified for trace elements, environmental standards, trace element standards, ion-activity standards (for pH and ion-selective electrodes), freezing and melting point standards, colorimetry standards, optical standards, radioactivity standards, particle-size standards, and density standards. Certificates are issued with the standard reference materials showing values for the parameters that have been determined. 

Sediment Analysis. Sediment is the most chemically and biologically active component of the aquatic environment. Benthic invertebrate and microbial life concentrate in the sediment, a natural sink for precipitated metal forms, and an excellent sorbent for many metal species. TTie extent to which potentially toxic trace element forms bind to sediment is determined by the sediment s binding intensity and capacity and various solution parameters, as well as the concentration and nature of the metal forms of interest. Under some conditions sediment analyses can readily indicate sources of discharged trace elements. 

Mavrodineanu R, ed. 1977) Procedures Used at the National Bureau of Standards to Determine Selected Trace Elements in Biological and Botanical Materials. National Bureau of Standards Spec Publ 492. National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC. 

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