Evaluation of some critical factors affecting determination of aluminum in blood, plasma, or serum by electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy.

A digestion procedure involving nitric acid is described for determination of aluminum in blood, serum, and plasma by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy. Contamination was not a severe problem if all operations were performed in a dust-free atmosphere. Conditions for such determination of aluminum in blood were optimum when the L'vov platform technique was used and hydrogen added to the inner gas flow of the furnace. We discuss the importance of adequate correction for nonspecific absorbance when this technique is used close to the detection limit. The blank value for the overall procedure was 1.0 (SD 0.59) micrograms/L (n = 22). We applied the method to frozen whole blood, plasma, and serum samples. For whole-blood samples from 11 different healthy subjects the mean value was as low as 1.6 (SD 1.29) micrograms of AI per liter (n = 22).