Application of inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry for elemental analysis of urine

An analytical method using double focusing sector field inductively - coupl ed plasma mass spectrometry (sector field ICP MS) for rapid simultaneous de termination of 42 elements in urine is described. Sample preparation consis ted of 20-fold dilution with 0.14 mol/l nitric acid in ultrapure water. The importance of controlling possible contamination sources at different samp le preparation and analysis stages in order to achieve adequate method dete ction limits (DL) is emphasized. Correction for matrix effects was made usi ng indium and lutetium as internal standards. Different approaches for accu racy assessment in urine analysis are evaluated. Additional information on trace element concentrations in a urine reference material is given. Betwee n-batch precision was assessed from the analysis of separately prepared ali quots of the reference material and was better than 10% RSD for 32 of the e lements. The robustness of the procedure was tested by analysis of about 25 0 samples in one analytical run lasting more than 50 hours. A statistical s ummary of results for 19 urine samples from non-exposed subjects is present ed. For a majority of the elements tested concentrations were higher than t he detection limit of the method.