Medical and health-related trace element analysis by TXRF

The advantages offered with TXRF analysis by direct irradiation with monochromatic X-rays of tissue homogenates and body fluids make the technique appropriate for a number of medical and health related applications. The ability to detect low levels of toxic heavy elements is being used as an aid in accidental poisoning diagnosis and treatment, in treatment-induced toxicity control and as an accessory in medical and health research. Thus lead-in-whole-blood analysis is used in confirmation of diagnosis of victims of poisoning, or monitoring the evolution and efficiency of the clinical treatment. Measurement and control of plasma platinum levels of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy with Pt-containing drugs includes: establishment of the drug level-tumor remission response, measurement of Pt plasma level curves and establishment of optimum dosage to minimize the nephrotoxicity of platinum, and bioequivalence comparisons of different commercially available platinum containing anticancer drugs. Analysis as an aid in clinical research applications includes: trace element determination of amniotic fluid in fetus malformation studies; analysis of brain specimens and cerebrospinal fluid in diagnosis of central nervous system disorders; the influence of trace elements in cataract genesis and the influence of heavy elements in semen quality in human reproduction studies. Human body samples require the use of monochromatized beams of x-rays in order to derive the special advantage of its use: i) The reduction in the spectrum background allowing direct irradiation of organic matter specimens. Hence human tissue and body fluids are prepared by simple procedures involving dilution, homogenization and standard addition avoiding the need for specimen digestion. This results in faster, cheaper methods that decrease sample contamination problems. ii) The presence of a large Compton scattered signal in the spectrum and its use as an internal standard reference allows further simplification by avoiding the need to add an element as internal standard in test specimens. Quantification methods rely on determination of spectrometer sensitivity relative to an element or to the Compton peak. Standard reference materials or matrix matching required for this purpose may be substituted by the use of a standardized specimens made from the unknown by spiking with elements absent in the matrix or by a semi-empirical reference model. (author)