Detection of sodium and potassium in single human red blood cells by 193-nm laser ablative sampling: a feasibility demonstration.

The feasibility of quantifying sodium and potassium in single human erythrocytes was demonstrated by spectrochemical analysis of emissions from plasmas produced by 193-nm laser ablation of blood cells confined in a sheath flow. In one scheme, single blood cells that happened to be in the ablation volume were sampled. In another scheme, individual blood cells were first sighted and then synchronously ablated downstream. Plasma emission spectra of single ablated cells were captured, and the ratios of the analyte line intensity to the root-mean-square fluctuation of the continuum background were measured to be about 18 for sodium and 30 for potassium.