Elemental Trace Analysis of Biological Materials

I. INTRODUCTION A. Scope and Purpose of the Review The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a number of the more popular trace element analytical techniques in meeting the needs of the life scientists. Emphasis is directed towards the determination of trace elements in biological materials using those techniques that are currently being used extensively for this purpose or show promise in the immediate future. Techniques compared include anodic-stripping voltametry (ASV), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), electrothermal atomization-atomic absorption spectrometry (ETA-AAS), emission spectrometry (ES), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), ion-selective electrodes (ISE), neutron activation analysis (NAA), spark-source mass spectrometry (SSMS), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. Emphasis is placed on their actual use in clinical analyses as indicated by their appearance in the clinical chemical literature for the past 10 years, rather than conventional analytical sources of information.