State and history of heart tissue preparation for proton microprobe elemental analysis at the Eindhoven Cyclotron Laboratory

Proton microprobe techniques are useful in investigating ischemia-reperfusi on induced ion shifts between cardiac muscle cells and interstitial fluid. Preliminary results have shown that proper analysis of ion concentrations i n various cardiac compartments is hampered by dislocation of elements durin g sample preparation. In this study the different stages of the preparation were evaluated as possible sources of artifacts. After improvements of the sample preparation procedure, sharp ion concentration gradients within hea rt tissue preparations were obtained, indicating no noticeable ion dislocat ion at the scale of the measurements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.