Direct selenium determination in human whole blood by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with deuterium correction using a L'vov-platform, a Pd/Mg matrix modification and appropriate dilution.

A mixture of palladium/magnesium nitrate was used as matrix modifier in graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry for the direct determination of selenium in human whole blood Addition of HCl up to 0.2 M, a twenty-five fold diluted sample and an appropriate furnace program are necessary to eliminate the interference of iron. Reproducibility of less than 3% at the 95 micrograms/L level, a detection limit of 10 micrograms/L and good accuracy, as determined by intercomparison runs and recovery of spiked samples, are obtained. The proposed method can be used for analysing 4 blood samples per hour.