Evaluation of multi-element analysis of blood serum by energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry

Conventional energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence is applied in the analysis of blood serum to give the concentrations of 7–10 elements simultaneously with minimal manipulation of the samples. Simple spotting onto a Mylar carrier of 250 μl of serum, doped with two internal standards, was chosen as the sample preparation step. Some 200 serum samples, analyzed in replicate (n = 2–6), were used to evaluate this procedure. The detection limits are 4 μg ml^-1 for K and Ca, 0.5–0.2 μg ml^-1 for Fe, Cu, Pb and Zn, and less than 0.1 μg ml^-1 for Se, Rb and Sr. Well above these limits, the standard deviation is around 10%. Comparison with the results of other measurements on the same samples indicates an accuracy of that order. The simplicity and high throughput, and the possibility of automating the x.r.f. measurements, make the proposed procedure suitable for screening large numbers of sera.