Since most biological matrices contain significant levels of carbon, normal levels of chromium in serum and urine are below the detection capabilities of conventional ICP-MS
While chromium is an essential element for human health, elevated levels can cause serious health problems.
Chromium is routinely monitored in serum and urine as an indicator of exposure levels, and many clinical laboratories now use ICP-MS, with its ability to perform fast multi-elemental analyses, for toxic metals analysis.
However, since most biological matrices contain significant levels of carbon, normal levels of chromium in serum and urine are below the detection capabilities of conventional ICP-MS due to the interferences from ArC+.
A PerkinElmer application note describes the determination of normal levels of chromium in serum and urine using the Elan dynamic reaction cell (DRC) ICP-MS.
The ArC+ interference was reduced using ammonia as the reaction gas, with the dynamic bandpass tuning parameters adjusted to eliminate any unwanted secondary reaction products. The reaction gas flow rate was optimised using the automated routines in the Elan software to maximise chromium signal transmission while minimising the ArC+ background.
Results obtained by the Elan DRC compared well with those obtained for in-house patient and external study samples using HR-ICP-MS and ZGFAAS techniques.
DRC ICP-MS offers lower detection limits at lower cost and with faster sample throughput.
Multi-element analysis is possible in a single run, so smaller sample volumes are needed, which is an advantage in toxicology applications.
