Acta Pharm. 51 (2001) 201-209

Original scientific paper  
 

Determination of manganese in human serum and urine by electrothermal
atomic absorption spectrometry

NADICA TODOROVSKA,1 BELGIN IZGI,2 TRAJCE STAFILOV,3*  SEREF GUCER2 
and DRAGAN MIHAJLOVIC3

1Institute of Preventive Medical Care and Toxicology, Military Health Institution Center, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia
2Uludag University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Department of Chemistry, Bursa, Turkey
3Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, POB 162, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia
Received December 28, 2000      Accepted June 27, 2001

The present paper describes methods for direct determination of manganese in human serum and urine by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) with both deuterium and Zeeman background corrections and with nitric acid as matrix modifier. In both deuterium and Zeeman correction methods, the presence of nitric acid significantly reduces the background signal and direct determination of manganese is possible. Pyrolysis temperature of 900 oC was found as an optimal for deuterium and 1000 oC for Zeeman correction, while 1800 oC and 2100 oC were found to be optimal atomizing temperatures, respectively. Calibration curves were prepared by the standard addition method. The limit of detection of manganese in serum and urine was 0.2 mg L-1 for the method with deuterium correction and 0.1 mg L-1 for the method with Zeeman correction. The values for manganese in sera of 142 occupationally exposed workers ranged between 0.80 and 7.20 mg L-1 (mean ± SD 2.16 ± 1.18 mg L-1) while for 31 nonexposed subjects the value ranged from 0.75 to 2.30 mg L-1 (mean ± SD 1.73 ± 0.77 mg L-1).


Keywords: manganese, blood serum, urine, determination, electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry