Urine analysis toxic metals

Level 2 Laboratories. Thirty-seven labs also participate in Level 2 activities. At this level, laboratory personnel are trained to detect exposure to a limited number of toxic chemical agents in human blood or urine. Analysis of cyanide and toxic metals in human samples are examples of Level 2 laboratory activities. 

In the application of atomic emission spectroscopy for quantitative analysis, samples must be prepared in liquid form of a suitable solvent unless it is already presented in that form. The exceptions are solids where samples can be analysed as received using rapid heating electro-thermal excitation sources, such as graphite furnace heating or laser ablation methods. Aqueous samples, e.g. domestic water, boiler water, natural spring, wines, beers and urines, can be analysed for toxic and non-toxic metals as received with... 

Metal analysis of bio-monitoring samples, such as blood, urine, saliva, semen, skin, internal and external body parts outside clinical testing, is often required to support toxicological and other studies. Screening of samples for metals analysis may be used to expose the presence of toxic metals in water, air pollution or foods consumed by the public. Some elements that are essential nutrients at low levels can be toxic at higher levels and some are toxic at any level. 

Analysis of urine samples for metals content is a useful way to study the presence of toxic metals in humans. The metal content can give an indication of the performance of kidneys in regulating the body electrolyte, water metabolism and rate of excretion of metals from the body. ICP-OES can be used to measure the level of heavy metals in urine of both healthy and pathological cases. Sample preparation for analysis of these samples must involve an acid digestion in a microwave oven or bomb combustion to destroy the interfering organics present. Metals such as Pb, Cd, Tl, Se, Sn and Hg are the usual metals requiring analysis. 

Valkonen, S., Jarvisalo, J. and Aitio. A. (1987) Lyophilized and natural urine specimens in the quality control of analysis of toxic metals. Annals Clinical and Lab. Sci. 17.145. 

Bearse, R.C., Close, D.A., Malanify, J.J., and Umbarger, C.J. (1974). Elemental analysis of whole blood using proton-induced X-ray emission. Anal. Chem., 4 , 499-503 Berman, E. (1980) Toxic metals and their analysis, Heyden, London, Philadelphia, Rheine Brown, A.A., and Taylor, A. (1984) Determination of copper and zinc in serum and urine by use of slotted quartz tube and flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Analyst, 109. 1455-1459... 

The first requirement can be easily fulfilled by the preconcentration of the analyte before the analysis. Preconcentration has been applied to sample preparation for flame atomic absorption (25) and, more recently, for ICP (79,80) spectroscopy. However, preconcentration is not completely satisfactory, because of the increased analysis time (which may be critical in clinical analysis) and the increased chance of contamination or sample loss. Most important, however, a larger initial sample size is necessary. The apparent solution is a more sensitive technique. Table 2 lists concentrations of various metals in whole blood or serum (81,82) in comparison to limits of detection for the various atomic spectroscopy techniques. In many cases, especially for the toxic heavy metals, only flameless atomic absorption using a graphite furnace can provide the necessary sensitivity and accommodate a sample of only a few microliters (Table 1). The determination of therapeutic gold in urine and serum (83,84), chromium in serum (85), skin (86) and liver (87), copper in semen (88), arsenic in urine (89), manganese in animal tissues (90), and lead in blood (91) are but a few examples in analyses which have utilized the flameless atomic absorption technique. 

Samples such as hair, nails, blood, urine, and various tissues are analyzed by NAA for both essential and toxic trace elements (Bhandari et al. 1987, Lai et al. 1987). The analysis can be related to determine their effect on disease outcomes. These authors have reported that the diet and environment contribute largely towards the trace elements in the human body. It is has been demonstrated in other works that the selenium concentration in human nails is an accurate monitor of the dietary intake of selenium. As a consequence, the nail monitor has been extensively used to study the protective effect of dietary selenium against cancer and heart disease in numerous prospective case-control studies. In another study by Kanabrocki et al. (1979) on human thumbnails in USA, using thermal NAA technique, the average concentration of metals studied in clinically symptom-free adult female and male subjects were found to be zinc, 184 vs. 153 ppm chromium, 6.8 vs. 4.2 selenium, 0.9 vs. 0.6 gold, 2.6 vs. 0.4 mercury, 1.9 vs. 0.4 silver 0.7 vs. 0.3 cobalt, 0.07 vs. 0.04. In another study, the fluorine concentration in bone biopsy samples was... 

Minrata Y, Denda A, Marayama H et al (1997) Chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies of 2-methylnaphthalene in B6C3Fi mice. Fundam Appl Toxicol 36(l) 90-93 Minrata Y, Emi Y, Denda A et al (1992) Ultrastructural analysis of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis induced by methylnaphthalene in mice. Exp Toxicol Pathol 44(1) 47—54 Navas-Acien A, Silbergeld EK, Sharrett R et al (2005) Metals in urine and peripheral arterial disease. Environ Health Perspect 113(2) 164—169 Nnorom 1C, Osibanjo O (2009) Toxicity characterization of waste mobile phone plastics. J Hazard Mater 161(1) 183-188... 

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