[Automated microdetermination of lead in capillary blood from earlobes by flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry].
Recent development of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry has made possible more precise and sensitive determinations of metals including lead. This means that a sample size of microliter order of blood has come to give a sufficient analytic signal. Blood lead which has usually been determined using venous blood was determined in the present study using a small amount of capillary blood. The method developed is of lead determination in the capillary blood sample from earlobe by means of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry equipped with an automated microsampling system or autosampler. Thus, 70 microliters of heparinized whole blood sample from earlobe gave a satisfactory result in the lead analysis. The procedure is as follows. 1) Blood obtained from the earlobe is collected in a heparinized capillary tube. 2) The blood is diluted in the ratio of 1 : 9 with Triton 5000 X solution for complete hemolysis of erythrocytes, by which the matrix-bound lead is released and a better distribution of samples is made possible in the graphite tube. 3) Finally the sample is analyzed by a flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometer with an autosampler. Making sure the analytical method to be accurate and reliable for blood lead determination, the authors compared capillary blood lead levels (Pb-Bc) with venous ones (Pb-Bv) from the same subjects in the same sampling session. It was found that the correlation between Pb-Bc and Pb-Bv was highly significant (n = 144, r = +0.998, y = 0.97 x+0.32, p less than 0.001) and that they were almost of the same level. It was concluded that the method developed may be recommended for the routine clinical use.
D000328:Adult; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods*; D002196:Capillaries; D004423:Ear / Q000098:blood supply; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000379:methods*
D007854:Lead