Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric determination of gold in serum: Comparison with flame and furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

Three analytical methods for the determination of gold in the serum of rheumatoid patients have been compared, i.e., flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with the respective detection limits of 30, 1.0 and 0.01 ng ml-1. The stability of gold solutions was also investigated. With 0.1% Triton X-100 and 0.1 M hydrochloric acid the gold concentration at ng ml-1 levels in standards was constant for 4 days, and the levels in 2000-fold diluted serum were the same for at least 7 days. The analytical results obtained with the above three methods correlated quite well, however, ICP-MS was the best technique, because of its specificity, sensitivity, wide dynamic range, speedy and ease of measurement.