title: Determination of selenium in blood plasma and serum by flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry.
abstract: A flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometric (AAS) method has been used to determine the selenium concentrations of human serum and plasma samples following digestion with nitric, sulphuric and perchloric acids. In the hydride generation process, reduction was carried out by sodium tetrahydroborate to produce a hydride that was atomized in a flame-heated atomisation cell. The method had a detection limit of 1.2 ng ml-1 and a sensitivity of 2.1 ng ml-1. Within-run precisions of 5.8% at 20 ng ml-1 and 4.5% at 80 ng ml-1, and between-run precisions of 4.8% at 69 ng ml-1 and 3.4% at 80 ng ml-1 were obtained. An inter-laboratory comparison study with a graphite furnace AAS method was carried out and the results showed excellent agreement. The flow injection method of sample introduction allowed the use of a sample volume of 330 microliters with an injection rate of 90 injections per hour.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Ireland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dadgar
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McMaster
mesh_terms: D001894:Borohydrides; D006801:Humans; D008832:Microchemistry; D009566:Nitrates; D017942:Nitric Acid; D010472:Perchlorates; D011786:Quality Control; D012643:Selenium / Q000097:blood*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013464:Sulfuric Acids; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D001894:Borohydrides; D009566:Nitrates; D010472:Perchlorates; D013464:Sulfuric Acids; D017942:Nitric Acid; C025364:sodium borohydride; D012643:Selenium; C033158:sulfuric acid