Lead screening in DBS by solid sampling high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry: application to newborns and pregnant women.
BACKGROUND
DBS have become a clinical specimen especially adequate for establishing home-based collection protocols. In this work, high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry is evaluated for the direct monitoring of Pb in DBS, both as a quantitative tool and a screening method.


METHODS
The development of the screening model is based on the establishment of the unreliability region around the threshold limits, 100 or 50 μg l(-1). More than 500 samples were analyzed to validate the model.


CONCLUSIONS
The screening method demonstrated high sensitivity (the rate of true positives detected was always higher than 95%), an excellent LOD (1 µg l(-1)) and high throughput (10 min per sample).
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hospital Universitario "Miguel Servet", Paseo Isabel La Católica 1-3, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain.
Luis
L
Rello
Centro Universitario de la Defensa-Academia General Militar de Zaragoza, Carretera de Huesca s/n, 50090, Zaragoza, Spain.|Department of Analytical Chemistry, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain.
Maite
M
Aramendía
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain.
Miguel A
MA
Belarra
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain.
Martín
M
Resano
D000328:Adult; D002138:Calibration; D059788:Dried Blood Spot Testing / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006108:Graphite; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000379:methods; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
D007854:Lead; D006108:Graphite