Simultaneous Determination of Multi-elements in Whole Blood by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Objectives To develop a method for simultaneous determination of multi-elements in whole blood by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Methods Blood samples were digested in a water bath by nitric acid. Sc, Ge, Rh and Re were chosen as internal standards. After adding isopropyl alcohol, 17 elements were analyzed by inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Standard materials, Seronorm^TM Trace Elements Whole Blood L-1 and L-2, were used as quality control.

Results The correlation coefficients (R²) for all elements were above 0.9995. The limits of detection (LOD) were 2.0, 2.0, 1.0, 1.0 and 5.0 μg/L for Pb, Sb, Cr, Mn and Cu, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) for other elements were all below 0.3 μg/L. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of elements in 400 whole blood samples. The relative standard deviations were less than 10% for all elements.

Conclusions The proposed method was simple, sensitive and convenient for the simultaneous determination of multi-elements in whole blood samples.