DETERMINATION OF ANTIMONY IN URINE, BLOOD AND SERUM AND IN LIVER AND LUNG TISSUES OF INFANTS BY INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

Methods are presented for the determination by ICP-MS of antimony in b ody fluids and tissues of infants, Urine, serum and whole blood specim ens are prepared for analysis by simply diluting 200 mu l sample volum es (1 + 14) with water and adding indium as internal standard, fiver a nd lung tissues are digested using 16 M HNO3 either in open quartz ves sels at 150 degrees C or in sealed vessels with microwave heating, The acid digests are diluted with water and indium is added as internal s tandard for ICP-MS measurements, All analyses were subjected to string ent internal quality control protocols, Accuracy was assessed by recov eries, repeated analyses and by analysis of NIST SRMs 1577a Bovine Liv er and 1566a Oyster Tissue, Precisions of analyses were better than 5- 10% in the ranges 0.1-0.3 mu g l(-1) for urine, serum and blood; acid at 7-25 ng g(-1) in tissues. Detection limits were 0.7 ng g(-1) in liv er, 0.8 ng g(-1) in lung, and 0.01 mu g l(-1) in urine, serum and bloo d, The need to employ validated procedures for specimen collection and to give considerable attention to pre-analytical factors in order to avoid adventitious contamination with antimony is demonstrated.