Atomic spectrometry update: review of advances in the analysis of clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages

Abstract

A theme that emerges from this year's Update is that of ‘green’ chemistry. This, in part, explains the larger than usual number of publications focussing on sample preparation, especially those concerned with the analysis of foods. Procedures that involved dilute acids while still achieving digestion of the specimens were reported by various workers. Meanwhile the trend towards smaller and smaller volumes continues with developments on the micro-scale. These aspects were noted in both the original work and in reviews. Last year saw the large number of papers concerned with metallic prostheses and this topic continues to attract interest. In possibly the first publication in which ICP-MS/MS was used for a clinical application, concentrations of Ti were determined in serum from healthy subjects and patients with hip implants. Concern is evident over the toxicological implications of consumption of rice grown in regions where water is contaminated with As. This has led to several reports of analytical methods and of concentrations in foods and total diets. Localisation of the As into different parts of the plant and the rice was also investigated and, in some reports this included speciation as well as the total As concentrations. Compared with the last few years, Se longer dominates the speciation work reported in this Update and there are more reports relating to As and Hg. A new class of arsenolipids, cationic trimethylarsenio fatty alcohols, were discovered in Capelin Oil. The number of publications applying XRF spectrometry to imaging elements within tissues appears to be increasing with localisation in bone of particular interest. Laser ablation ICP-MS in combination with other techniques, TOF-SIMS, XRD or XPS was also noted, to increase the information obtained.