Performance appraisals of digital spectroscopy systems for the measurementof bone lead

The performances of two new digital spectroscopy systems are compared to a conventional analogue amplifier ADC system for the Cd-109 based K X-ray flu orescence in vivo measurement of bone lead. Canberra's DSA-2000 and ORTEC's DSPECPLUS were found to show 27.3 and 10.8% improvements in measurement pr ecision respectively, when compared to an optimized conventional system. Th e resulting improvements in minimum detection limit, compared with the conv entional limit of 6-10 mu g Pb/g bone mineral, were reductions of 1.5-2.5 m u g Pb/g bone mineral for the DSA-2000, and 0.5-1.0 mu g Pb/g bone mineral for the DSPECPLUS. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.