Development and application of a high accuracy method for measuring Pb in blood

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Toxicology

Background:

• Lead (Pb) is a pervasive environmental pollutant.
• Accurate measurement of blood Pb concentrations is crucial for assessing human exposure and health effects, particularly at low levels.
• Existing methods require improvement for high-accuracy quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for quantifying lead (Pb) in human blood.
• To assess the analytical performance and applicability of the new ICP-MS method.

Main Methods:

• Blood samples were spiked with bismuth (internal standard), digested with nitric acid, and diluted.
• Calibration was performed using high-purity reference materials and the calibration bracketing method.
• Analytical performance, including specificity, matrix effect, precision, recovery, and limit of quantification, was evaluated.

Main Results:

• The ICP-MS method demonstrated excellent specificity and negligible matrix effects.
• High precision was achieved with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation below 1.88%.
• Recovery ranged from 98.9% to 99.4%, and the limit of quantification was 1.1 µg/l. The method performed well at high concentrations but requires further validation at low concentrations.

Conclusions:

• The developed ICP-MS method is simple, accurate, and a potential candidate reference method for blood Pb analysis.
• Further research is necessary to fully validate its performance, especially for low blood lead concentrations.