Errors and interferences in the determination of chromium in biological materials by INAA

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:5974368

Becker, D A ^[1]

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1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States)

In the late 1950s, chromium was found to be important in animal nutrition, and shortly after that was found to be essential for human nutrition. The most important chromium function is in maintaining normal glucose tolerance primarily by regulating insulin action, although the exact molecular structure involved has not yet been determined. In addition, some interaction of chromium with thyroid metabolism and with nucleic acids in both experimental animals and humans has been postulated. However, dietary intake of chromium in the United States and in other developed countries is reported to be suboptimal by 30 to 50%, based on the minimum US daily intake of 50 [mu]g. There are analytical problems with the determination of chromium in biological materials by most analytical techniques, including neutron activation analysis (NAA). The well-known International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intercomparison on milk powder produced results for chromium by 13 laboratories ranging over more than four orders of magnitude. More recently, the 1990 American Society for Testing and Materials task group intercomparison on apple leaves initially produced results having a range of 483% for the four laboratories reporting chromium. The peach leaves results were similar with a range of 450%. Note also that these latter two intercomparisons were on botanical matrices having relatively high chromium concentrations of [approximately] 0.3 and 1 mg/kg, compared to the IAEA milk with a concentration of 0.02 mg/kg. This paper reports on potential errors and interferences which can enter into chromium measurements by INAA. Some errors discussed are generic, applying to any measurement system, and some are specific to the problem of chromium in biological matrices.

• OSTI ID: 5974368
• Report Number(s): CONF-930601--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 68
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHROMIUM
CONCENTRATION RATIO
ELEMENTS
ERRORS
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INTERFERENCE
INTERFERING ELEMENTS
MATERIALS
METALS
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS