Determination of the elemental homogeneity of selected biological organs by 2MEV proton induced x-ray emission analysis

The use of finite size sub-samples to derive elemental concentrations which are representative of a tissue or organ as a whole are subject to errors arising from the heterogeneous nature of biological specimens. Proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis is employed to identify element variances in porcine liver, kidney and heart and sampling factors, which are the minimum mass of sample required to reduce concentration variability to a given level, are calculated. This analysis highlights the inhomogeneous nature of biological specimens and the need for clearly defined sampling protocols. (author). 14 refs., 2 tabs