Acta Pharm. 61 (2011) 93-102
Short communication
Simultaneous determination of iron and copper
in children's sera by FAAS
SVJETLANA LUTEROTTI, TON�ICA VUKMAN KORDI� and SLAVICA DODIG
sluter@pharma.hr
1 University of
2 HALMED − Agency for
Medicinal Products and Medical Devices,
3 Children�s Hospital Srebrnjak,
Accepted February 14, 2011
A new and simple flame atomic-absorption spectrometric (FAAS) method is proposed for simultaneous
determination of iron and copper in children's sera. It is based on single-step
sample pretreatment (deproteinization with 3 mol L�1 HCl, ratio 1:1)
and single-step calibration using 1.5 mol L�1 HCl standard. During
method�s optimization a short multifactorial design experiment was used. The proposed method
assures accuracy, sensitivity and precision comparable to that of the reference
methods. The new approach is simple and time-, labour- and serum-saving,
the latter being especially important in pediatric diagnostics.
Keywords: iron, copper, children�s serum, FAAS, single-step
determination