Speciation of Arsenic in Blood by Cold Trap Vapor Reduction Atomic Absorption Method

Introduction

The toxicity of arsenic differs depending on its chemical form. Inorganic arsenic has stronger toxicity than methylated arsenic species such as monomethyl, dimethyl and trimethyl arsenics. When ingested into human body, inorganic arsenic is metabolized and changes its chemical form into methylated arsenic, and to dimethylated arsenic. The arsenic toxicity decreases through this process of metabolism. The level of arsenic exposure in a person can be evaluated by analyzing these metabolites. One method for speciating arsenic is “the cold trap -vapor reduction - atomic absorption spectroscopy”. This Application News introduces an example of speciating arsenic in human blood using this method. It has been generally thought that speciating arsenic in human blood is difficult because the arsenic concentrations in blood are usually extremely low, and interfering substances largely affect the analysis. However, by combining “the cold trap - vapor reduction - atomic absorption spectroscopy” and a simple pretreatment procedure, arsenic in blood can be easily analyzed.

June 23, 2004 GMT