title: Development and validation of a novel, simple, and accurate spectrophotometric method for the determination of lead in human serum.
abstract: The determination of blood lead levels is the most useful indicator of the determination of the amount of lead that is absorbed by the human body. Various methods, like atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), have already been used for the detection of lead in biological fluid, but most of these methods are based on complicated, expensive, and highly instructed instruments. In this study, a simple and accurate spectroscopic method for the determination of lead has been developed and applied for the investigation of lead concentration in biological samples. In this study, a silica gel column was used to extract lead and eliminate interfering agents in human serum samples. The column was washed with deionized water. The pH was adjusted to the value of 8.2 using phosphate buffer, and then tartrate and cyanide solutions were added as masking agents. The lead content was extracted into the organic phase containing dithizone as a complexion reagent and the dithizone-Pb(II) complex was formed and approved by visible spectrophotometry at 538 nm. The recovery was found to be 84.6 %. In order to validate the method, a calibration curve involving the use of various concentration levels was calculated and proven to be linear in the range of 0.01-1.5 μg/ml, with an R (2) regression coefficient of 0.9968 by statistical analysis of linear model validation. The largest error % values were found to be -5.80 and +11.6 % for intra-day and inter-day measurements, respectively. The largest RSD % values were calculated to be 6.54 and 12.32 % for intra-day and inter-day measurements, respectively. Further, the limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 0.002 μg/ml. The developed method was applied to determine the lead content in the human serum of voluntary miners, and it has been proven that there is no statistically significant difference between the data provided from this novel method and the data obtained from previously studied AAS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Tavakol Heidari
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Shayesteh
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Center, Dr. Abidi Pharmaceutical Company, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khajavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Abolfazl Ghafuri
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Khosroshahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Fahmideh Ave., Pajoohesh Sq, Hamedan, Iran. r.mahjoub@umsha.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahjub
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007854:Lead
keywords: Complexation; Dithizone; Human serum; Lead; Spectrophotometric detection