title: Rapid determination of uranium isotopes in urine by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.
abstract: Following a radiological or nuclear emergency involving uranium exposure, rapid analytical methods are needed to analyze the concentration of uranium isotopes in human urine samples for early dose assessment. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique, with its high sample throughput and high sensitivity, has advantages over alpha spectrometry for uranium urinalysis after minimum sample preparation. In this work, a rapid sample preparation method using an anion exchange chromatographic column was developed to separate uranium from the urine matrix. A high-resolution sector field ICP-MS instrument, coupled with a high sensitivity desolvation sample introduction inlet, was used to determine uranium isotopes in the samples. The method can analyze up to 24 urine samples in two hours with the limits of detection of 0.0014, 0.10, and 2.0 pg mL(-1) for (234)U, (235)U, and (238)U, respectively, which meet the requirement for isotopic analysis of uranium in a radiation emergency.
authors.affiliation: Chalk River Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, ON, Canada K0J 1J0. shiy@aecl.ca
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kramer-Tremblay
mesh_terms: D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D014501:Uranium / Q000652:urine*
chemical_list: D014501:Uranium