Anodic Stripping Voltammetry Compared with Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry for Blood Lead Analysis

摘要

According to a recent CDC report, blood lead concentrations in 1 000 000 US children are at values associated with irreversible damage to health (1). The effects of chronic lead poisoning on the developing nervous systems have been well documented (2), with children in inner city neighborhoods, where older housing stocks have deteriorating lead paint, most vulnerable (3). Accurate screening of children for lead exposure is, therefore, of paramount importance.The current biomarker for assessment of lead exposure is venous blood lead, commonly measured by anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) or graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAA). Although both of these techniques have been used in our laboratory for 15 years, with ASV being our instrument of choice for clinical blood lead analysis, there is surprisingly little published information on ASV as a clinical tool for blood lead analysis.Here we present comparative data on ASV and GFAA analyses of blood lead in our clinic, with a novel reagent for calibration of ASV. For ASV, we used the ESA 3010B Trace Metals Analyzer (Environmental Science Associates) with a mercury-coated graphite electrode, a Ag/AgCl reference electrode, and a platinum counter electrode. For GFAA (4), we used a Zeeman/5100 PC atomic absorption spectrophotometer with HGA-600 graphite furnace and AS-60 autosampler (Perkin-Elmer).For analysis by ASV, instead of the manufacturer’s reagent we used a novel reagent developed at our laboratory that is based entirely on chloride salts and HCl. HCl is suitable for electroplating of metals. Importantly, …