Contribution to diagnostics/prognostics of tuberculosis in children. II. Indicative value of metal ions and biochemical parameters in serum

Abstract

In an attempt to provide a reliable status of metal ions in children, new methods of analysis of children's sera are proposed. New flame atomic-absorption spectrometric (FAAS) methods are simple, cost- and time-effective and, above all, labor-, reagent- and sample-saving. Two methods were selected andvalidated against reference methods: method A for simultaneous determination of Cu and Zn from 5-fold diluted sera, and method B, for assaying zinc alone in 10-fold diluted samples. Both methods are based on a single-step sample pretreatment (deproteinization with 3 mol dm-3 HCl). Method A uses a single-step calibration with a mixed standard. The main advantage of method B is an additional reduction in sample consumption. Both methods were fully validated; accuracy, sensitivity and precision have proven them to becomparable to the reference methods, in terms of analytical performance,and applicable to analyses of children's sera