BIOPSY MINERAL ANALYSIS BY INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROSCOPY WITH ULTRASONIC NEBULIZATION

Liver copper concentration is generally considered the best measure of copper nutritional status in cattle. Ultrasonic nebulization in conju nction with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (I CP-AES) was investigated as a method to provide adequate sensitivity t o allow accurate simultaneous measurement of copper and 14 additional elements from needle biopsy samples. The element concentration frequen cy distribution profile of 12 elements routinely present in liver was compared to profiles of the elements in fat, muscle, vena cava, kidney , and clotted blood. The profiles could be used to confirm the authent icity of the liver biopsy sample. Element concentrations in biopsy sam ples taken in triplicate from the five lobes of a bovine liver were co mpared to those from triplicate wedge sections taken adjacent to the b iopsies and analyzed by conventional ICP-AES. Precision between biopsi es was equal to or better than precision between wedge samples. Some e lement concentrations determined by the biopsy procedure differed stat istically from those determined by the wedge procedure, but difference s were not sufficient to influence clinical interpretation of data.