A methodological comparison of hydride and carbon furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy for the determination of selenium in serum.

Two methods based on different chemical and physical principles for the determination of selenium in serum are elaborated, evaluated and compared--the hydride atomic absorption (AAS) technique and the carbon furnace technique. For the hydride AAS technique a wet destruction method is described. The sensitivity of the method is 10 micrograms Se/1. The carbon furnace technique makes use of the fact that selenium forms refractory selenides when nickel compounds are added. The sensitivity of the carbon furnace technique is 11 micrograms Se/1. The determination of selenium in serum by the hydride AAS and carbon furnace technique correlates satisfactorily (correlation coefficient 0.94; mean value for the hydride AAS 69.1 micrograms Se/1; mean value for the carbon furnace 67.4 micrograms Se/1) indicating that with the carbon furnace technique total selenium (inorganic and organic) is determined. A reference range was established with 99 persons (42 men and 57 women) which show an average selenium content in serum of 80.55 (SD 13.78) micrograms Se/1 [1.02 (0.17) mumol Se/1].