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Results from the elemental analysis of completely dissolved human bone by atomic absorption are (for some elements) reproducibly higher than those from the analysis of only the material obtained through digestion of the bone. Because digestion procedures can be quite variable, complete dissolution should provide more reliable comparisons between laboratories. We offer a detailed description of the dissolution procedure and of the atomic absorption analysis for a dozen elements.
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Szpunar et al. (1978) studied this question.
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