OPTIMAL ANALYTICAL CONDITIONS FOR DETERMINING ELEMENTS IN GASTRIC TISSUE AND BLOOD OF CANCER-PATIENTS USING NEUTRON-ACTIVATION

Optimal conditions for elemental analysis in the gastric tissue and bl ood, including serum, plasma, and whole blood, of patients with gastri c cancer were investigated using instrumental neutron activation analy sis. In this work, different irradiated time, cooling time, and counti ng period and various weights of samples were adopted to study the opt imization of elemental analysis. The selection of optimized method dep ends on the minimum detectable concentration and the quantitative accu racy of measurable elements of Br, Cl, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Se, and Zn. It is suggested that the sample sizes of 50-100 mg for gastric tis sue and 20 mg for blood in short irradiation and 40-60 mg for blood in long irradiation are ideal for elemental analysis. Furthermore, five- minute activation and counting time in short irradiation yields the op timum condition. From analytical results, the analysis span of a sampl e may be shortened to 1-3 hours with 35-55 days cooling in long irradi ation.