title: Rapid and simultaneous determination of essential minerals and trace elements in human milk by improved flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) with microwave digestion.
abstract: A method for the simultaneous and economical determination of many trace elements in human milk is developed. Two multi-element hollow cathode lamps (HCLs) were used instead of single-element HCLs to improve the sample throughput of flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). The microwave digestion of milk is optimized prior to detection, and the performance characteristics of the improved analysis method are identified. Clinical samples are detected by both FAAS and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for methodology evaluation. Results reveal that the proposed FAAS with multi-element HCLs could determine six essential minerals and trace elements within 15 min. This method provides a linear analytical range of 0.01-10 mg L(-1). For Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, and Zn, the limits of determination are 1.5, 3, 1.8, 2.2, 2.1, and 1.3 microg L(-1), respectively. The mean relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra- and interassays are lower than 7%. Excellent operational characteristics of rapidity, simplicity, and economy make the proposed method a promising one for the quantification of trace elements in human milk in clinics of underdeveloped areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University of People's Liberation Army, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei-Yin
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Jun-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wei-Ling
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008872:Microwaves; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D008903:Minerals / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008903:Minerals