Aluminum levels in normal human serum and urine as determined by Zeeman atomic absorption spectrometry

A simple dilution procedure for the determination of aluminum in human serum and urine is described. Serum and urine specimens were analyzed directly after dilution with 0.1% Triton X-100. The matrix-based calibration was used for quantitation with the use of Zeeman background atomic absorption spectrometry. The precision (CV) of the method was from 2.9 to 6.6% for serum concentrations ranging from 3.04 to 0.9 mumol/L. The accuracy of the method was vertified by analyzing U.S. National Bureau of Standards, RM 8419 bovine serum reference material, recovery studies, and comparison with the protein precipitation method. The Quebec Interlaboratory Comparison Program was used for the validation of the analytical performance. The mean value of aluminum in 63 healthy subjects was 0.06 mumol/L for serum and 0.24 mumol/L for urine.