Abstract
Background: DBS have become a clinical specimen especially adequate for establishing home-based collection protocols. In this work, high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry is evaluated for the direct monitoring of Pb in DBS, both as a quantitative tool and a screening method. Methodology: The development of the screening model is based on the establishment of the unreliability region around the threshold limits, 100 or 50 μg l-1. More than 500 samples were analyzed to validate the model. Conclusion: The screening method demonstrated high sensitivity (the rate of true positives detected was always higher than 95%), an excellent LOD (1 µg l-1) and high throughput (10 min per sample).
Supplementary Data
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors acknowledge the funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CTQ2012-33494) and from the Aragón Government (Fondo Social Europeo). Luis Rello acknowledges the reception of the ‘Premio del Consejo Económico y Social de Aragón 2014 a trabajos de investigación concluidos o tesis doctorales’. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict withthe subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Ethical conduct of research
The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.