Direct determination of selenium in serum by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry using automated ultrasonic slurry sampling

Selenium concentration in body fluids is a good index to establish human selenium status. This work discusses the determination of selenium in serum by ETAAS using longitudinal Zeeman-effect background correction and combining the use of automated slurry sampling. The standard reference materials bovine serum (NIST, SRM 1598) and second-generation biological freeze-dried human serum are analyzed to verify the accuracy and precision of this technique. The direct method proposed in this study is used for the determination of selenium in human serum collected from healthy people of 19-25 years. The average accuracy values of certified reference serum samples and the recovery values of spiked samples indicate this method to be an efficient and rapid technique for determining selenium in biological samples. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.