The determination of mercury in whole blood and urine by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

An inductively coupled mass spectrometric (ICP-MS) method for the determina tion of mercury in whole blood and urine was developed. Gold and dichromate in hydrochloric acid were evaluated as agents to reduce mercury spray cham ber memory. Dichromate with hydrochloric acid was found to be superior to g old. We evaluated the rapid introduction of sample to promote equilibrium a nd the rapid introduction of wash solutions after the sample analyses to mi nimize mercury memory. This 'fast pump' mode (2.5 ml/min) was used for 20 s at the beginning and end of each sample-wash cycle. The mercury detection limit is 0.15 mu g/l in the original sample before dilution. Regressions an d correlation coefficients for ICP-MS vs. target concentrations for interla boratory comparison samples from the Centre de Toxicologie du Quebec were: whole blood: y = 1.0x - 0.6; r = 0.9801; n = 27 and urine: y = 0.84x + 8; r = 0.9915; n = 42. Patient samples were analyzed by ICP-MS and cold vapor a tomic absorption spectrometry (CVAAS). Regressions and correlations for pat ient samples were: urines: y = 0.93x + 1; r = 0.8763; n = 456 and whole blo od: y = 1.1x + 0.2; r = 0.9357; n = 251. ICP-MS correlation with CVAAS for 29 urine samples containing 15-150 mu g Hg/specimen was: y = 0.94x + 4; r = 0.9864. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.