Determination of Cadmium in Biological Samples

J. B. B. da Silva, D. L. G. Borges, M. A. M. S. da Veiga, A. J. Curtius, B. Welz, Determination of cadmium in biological samples solubilized with tetramethylammonium hydroxide by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry, using ruthenium as permanent modiPer, Talanta, 60 (2003), 977 D 982. 

It is evident that the precise determination of cadmium in biological samples, including blood, plasma, serum, and urine as well as hair, saliva, and various tissues is an important issue. Chapter 4 describes the relevant analytical tools like inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), electrochemical methods, neutron activation analysis (NAA), and X- ray... 

Because of the increasing emphasis on monitoring of environmental cadmium the determination of extremely low concentrations of cadmium ion has been developed. Table 2 lists the most prevalent analytical techniques and the detection limits. In general, for soluble cadmium species, atomic absorption is the method of choice for detection of very low concentrations. Mobile prompt gamma in vivo activation analysis has been developed for the nondestructive sampling of cadmium in biological samples (18). 

Valles Mota,J. P., Fernandez de la Campa, M. R., Garcia Alonso, J. I., and Sanz-Medel, A. (1999). Determination of cadmium in biological and environmental materials by isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry Eflfect of flow sample introduction methods./Ana/. At. Spectrom. 14(2), 113. 

Sperling [133] has reported extensively on the determination of cadmium in seawater, as well as in other biological samples and materials. He added ammonium persulfate, which permitted charring seawater at 430 °C without loss of cadmium. For workbelow 2 pg/1 cadmium in seawater he recommended extraction of the cadmium to separate it from the matrix [126,134,135]. He found no change in the measured levels over many months when the seawater was stored in high-density polyethylene or polypropylene. 

Stupar J, Dolinsek F. 1996. Determination of chromium, manganese, lead and cadmium in biological samples including hair using direct electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Spectrochim Acta Part B 51 665-683. 

Rozali bin Othman, M., Hill, J.O., and Magee, R.J., Determination of lead and cadmium in biological samples by potentiometric stripping analysis, Fresenius Zeitschrift fuer Analytische Chemie, 326, 350-353, 1987. 

I. Development of method, has been reported by Gajan et al. (1982). A respected output from the research group at the Research Centre in Jiilich on Potentiometric stripping determination of cadmium in environmental and biological samples has been reported by Ostapezuk etal. (1990). The determination of mercury species in environmental and biological samples by electrochemical methods is also covered in the review by a committee of the variety of methods used to determine Hg (Morita etal. 1998). 

OsTAPCZUK P, Stoeppler M and Durbeck HW (1990) Potentiometric stripping determination of cadmium in environmental and biological samples. 

The most common analytical procedures for measuring cadmium concentrations in biological samples use the methods of atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and atomic emission spectroscopy (AES). Methods of AAS commonly used for cadmium measurement are flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) and graphite furnace (or electrothermal) atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS or ETAAS). A method for the direct determination of cadmium in solid biological matrices by slurry sampling ETAAS has been described (Taylor et al., 2000). 

The Working Group Analyses of Hazardous Substances in Biological Materials of the Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area has published a standard procedure for the determination of cadmium in urine. Briefly, after UV digestion of the urine samples, an internal standard is added and the samples are introduced into the ICP-MS by means of a pneumatic nebuhzer. Evaluation is carried out using the standard addition procedure. The limit of detection is specified with 0.02 pg/L urine. The method can be applied for samples from environmental as well as occupational-medical studies [5]. 

High, K.A., Azani, R., Fazekas, A.F., Chee, Z.A. and Blais, J.-S. (1992) Thermospray-microatomizer interface for the determination of trace cadmium and cadmium-metallothioneins in biological samples with flow injection- and high-performance liquid chromatography-atomic absorption spectrometry. Anal. Chem., 64, 3197-3201. 

Zhuang G, Wang Y, Zhi M, et al. 1989. Determination of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper and zinc in biological samples by radiochemical neutron-activation analysis. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 129(2) 459-464. 

Chang, C. C., and Jiang, S.J. (1997). Determination of copper, cadmium and lead in biological samples by electrothermal vaporization isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 12(1), 75. 

Z.H. Wang, Z.P. Zhang, Z.P. Wang, L.W. Liu, X.P. Yan, Acrylic acid grafted poly-tetrafluoroethylene fiber as new packing for flow injection on-line microcolumn preconcentration coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for determination of lead and cadmium in environmental and biological samples, Anal. Chim. Acta 514 (2004) 151. 

Figure 3 Illustrates the problem faced by the IAEA in the broader context of their trace element laboratory intercomparison program. These data show the reported results of 16 laboratories for measurements of arsenic in the horse kidney intercomparison sample (H-8), based on various versions of atomic absorption spectrometry, optical emission spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, and Induced X-ray emission analysis. The objective of the horse kidney intercomparison was to assess (and refine) analytical methods for the determination of essential and toxic trace elements in this surrogate for human kidney (2). Kidney, as the main target organ which accumulates toxic elements, was of special Interest with respect to cadmium. Horse kidney, which contains similar levels of cadmium to the human kidney cortex, was selected for the development and maintenance of methods having a demonstrated level of quality to assure reliable biological monitoring of this element. Participants were Invited to analyze some 24 additional trace elements, however.

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