Simultaneous Determination of Arsenic, Manganese and Selenium in Human Serum by Neutron Activation Analysis

A procedure for the simultaneous determination of arsenic, manganese, and selenium in human serum is described, and its performance characteristics are evaluated with particular reference to manganese. Blank values depend critically on irradiation containers, and only one type of polyethylene ampoule gave a sufficiently low limit of detection. Other suspected sources of random and systematic errors are investigated; they did not, however, jeopardize precision or accuracy of analytical results. Careful studies of the sampling techniques with actual as well as simulated serum revealed considerable contamination with arsenic and manganese under normal hospital conditions; in addition, loss of added dimetbylselenide was observed even during deep-freeze storage of serum. A detailed sampling procedure with special precautions against contamination is described, and is shown to yield meaningful results for normal, human serum. Results tend to agree with the lowest values reported in the literature, and the analytical precision is sufficient for determination of the standard deviation of the distribution of all 3 elements in human serum. * This work was presented in part at the 2nd Symposium on the Recent Developments in Neutron Activation Analysis, Cambridge, 1971