Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry assay for quantification of free infliximab in serum

TNF antagonists such as infliximab are effective for the treatment of several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Recent clinical studies have advocated the importance of measuring trough infliximab levels to guide treatment decisions. We have developed a novel assay for measuring serum free infliximab levels using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The method involves the incubation of patient serum in wells coated with recombinant TNF, followed by detection with lanthanide-labeled monoclonal anti-human IgG1 and ICP-MS analysis. Full method validation was performed and results for clinical samples tested with the new method were compared with those obtained from a capture ELISA and a cell-based assay. Validation of the ICP-MS assay revealed a lower limit of detection of 0.4 μg/mL in serum. The linear range of quantitation was 1-50 μg/mL. The within-run and between-run precision had a coefficient of variation (CV) of <10%, and the accuracy of the assay had a CV of <15%. In serum samples, the ICP-MS method was devoid of analytical interferences by high levels of hemoglobin, bilirubin and triglycerides. Serum sample results from 123 drug-naïve donors revealed a test cutoff at 0.5 μg/mL. Test results from clinical samples obtained by the ICP-MS method showed strong correlation with both the ELISA and cell-based assay. The ICP-MS methodology presented in this study is a robust method for measuring TNF antagonist serum levels, which makes it well suited for therapeutic drug monitoring in the clinical laboratory.

Lachish River event monitored for toxicity using bioluminescent reporter organisms

The Lachish River has suffered from recurring pollution incidents for the past decade. On October 11th, 2017, another contamination in the river was sighted, as thousands of dead fish were found floating. Samples from the river were retrieved and tested through a whole cell bioluminescent bacterial bioreporter system as well as conventional analytical methods, and the results from both methods were analyzed and compared, even though initially these two collecting events were not coordinated. The information acquired from the whole cell reporter was consistent with that obtained from conventional methods. Both approaches indicated a large concentration of microorganisms as deduced from K802NR E. coli strain reaction and coliforms count. The high water conductivity measured in collected samples were closer downstream, and attributed to the diffusion of salts from the Mediterranean Sea which affected bacterial viability as seen from the decreased reaction of E. coli strains TV1061 and DPD2794. In addition, the bacterial indicators’ kinetic patterns have shown indication for the presence of a genotoxic substance from only one of the collection sites, which was tested positive for the herbicide Metazachlor, itself known to have genotoxic effects. The correlation between both approaches, along with the biosensor’s ability to assess biological influences, suggests that the whole cell bioluminescent bacterial bioreporter bioassay as an easy, simple and efficient approach for water toxicity monitoring.

Surface Analysis of WSe2 Crystals: Spatial and Electronic Variability

Layered semiconductor compounds represent alternative electronic materials beyond graphene. WSe₂ is one of the two-dimensional materials with wide potential in opto- and nanoelectronics and is often used to construct novel three-dimensional architectures with new functionalities. Here, we report the topography and the electronic property of the WSe₂ characterized by means of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM and STS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The STM images reveal the presence of atomic-size imperfections and a variation in the electronic structure caused by the presence of defects and impurities below the detection limit of XPS. Both STS and photoemission reveal a spatial variation in the Fermi level position. The analysis of the core levels indicates the presence of different doping levels. The presence of a large concentration of defects and impurities has a strong impact on the electronic properties of the WSe₂ surface. Our findings demonstrate that the growth of controllable and high quality two-dimensional materials at nanometer scale is one of the most challenging tasks that requires further attention.

Multielemental speciation analysis by advanced hyphenated technique - HPLC/ICP-MS: A review

Speciation analysis has become an invaluable tool in human health risk assessment, environmental monitoring or food quality control. Another step is to develop reliable multielemental speciation methodologies, to reduce costs, waste and time needed for the analysis. Separation and detection of species of several elements in a single analytical run can be accomplished by high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS). Our review assembles articles concerning multielemental speciation determination of: As, Se, Cr, Sb, I, Br, Pb, Hg, V, Mo, Te, Tl, Cd and W in environmental, biological, food and clinical samples analyzed with HPLC/ICP-MS. It addresses the procedures in terms of following issues: sample collection and pretreatment, selection of optimal conditions for elements species separation by HPLC and determination using ICP-MS as well as metrological approach. The presented work is the first review article concerning multielemental speciation analysis by advanced hyphenated technique HPLC/ICP-MS.

Impurities and Electronic Property Variations of Natural MoS2 Crystal Surfaces

Room temperature X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), high resolution Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (HR-RBS), Kelvin probe method, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are employed to study the properties of a freshly exfoliated surface of geological MoS2 crystals. Our findings reveal that the semiconductor 2H-MoS2 exhibits both n- and p-type behavior, and the work function as measured by the Kelvin probe is found to vary from 4.4 to 5.3 eV. The presence of impurities in parts-per-million (ppm) and a surface defect density of up to 8% of the total area could explain the variation of the Fermi level position. High resolution RBS data also show a large variation in the MoSx composition (1.8 < x < 2.05) at the surface. Thus, the variation in the conductivity, the work function, and stoichiometry across small areas of MoS2 will have to be controlled during crystal growth in order to provide high quality uniform materials for future device fabrication.

Introduction of organic/hydro-organic matrices in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry: a tutorial review. Part II. Practical considerations

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are increasingly used to carry out analyses in organic/hydro-organic matrices. The introduction of such matrices into ICP sources is particularly challenging and can be the cause of numerous drawbacks. This tutorial review, divided in two parts, explores the rich literature related to the introduction of organic/hydro-organic matrices in ICP sources. Part I provided theoretical considerations associated with the physico-chemical properties of such matrices, in an attempt to understand the induced phenomena. Part II of this tutorial review is dedicated to more practical considerations on instrumentation, instrumental and operating parameters, as well as analytical strategies for elemental quantification in such matrices. Two important issues are addressed in this part: the first concerns the instrumentation and optimization of instrumental and operating parameters, pointing out (i) the description, benefits and drawbacks of different kinds of nebulization and desolvation devices and the impact of more specific instrumental parameters such as the injector characteristics and the material used for the cone; and, (ii) the optimization of operating parameters, for both ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Even if it is at the margin of this tutorial review, Electrothermal Vaporization and Laser Ablation will also be shortly described. The second issue is devoted to the analytical strategies for elemental quantification in such matrices, with particular insight into the isotope dilution technique, particularly used in speciation analysis by ICP-coupled separation techniques.

Surface Defects on Natural MoS2

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are being considered for a variety of electronic and optoelectronic devices such as beyond complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) switches, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, as well as sensors, among others. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is the most studied of the TMDs in part because of its availability in the natural or geological form. The performance of most devices is strongly affected by the intrinsic defects in geological MoS2. Indeed, most sources of current transition metal dichalcogenides have defects, including many impurities. The variability in the electrical properties of MoS2 across the surface of the same crystal has been shown to be correlated with local variations in stoichiometry as well as metallic-like and structural defects. The presence of impurities has also been suggested to play a role in determining the Fermi level in MoS2. The main focus of this work is to highlight a number of intrinsic defects detected on natural, exfoliated MoS2 crystals from two different sources that have been often used in previous reports for device fabrication. We employed room temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to study the pristine surface of MoS2(0001) immediately after exfoliation. ICPMS used to measure the concentration of impurity elements can in part explain the local contrast behavior observed in STM images. This work highlights that the high concentration of surface defects and impurity atoms may explain the variability observed in the electrical and physical characteristics of MoS2.

Potential metal impurities in active pharmaceutical substances and finished medicinal products - A market surveillance study

A market surveillance study has been established by using different atomic spectrometric methods for the determination of selected elemental impurities of particular interest, to gain an overview about the quality of presently marketed drug products and their bulk drug substances. The limit tests were carried out with respect to the existing EMA guideline on the specification limits for residuals of metal catalysts or metal reagents. Also attention was given to the future implementation of two new chapters of the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) stating limit concentrations of elemental impurities. The methods used for determination of metal residues were inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and atomic absorption spectrometry technologies (GFAAS, CVAAS, HGAAS). This article presents the development and validation of the methods used for the determination of 21 selected metals in 113 samples from drug products and their active pharmaceutical ingredients.

A fast and reproducible method to quantify magnetic nanoparticle biodistribution

The quantification of nanoparticles, particularly superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), both in vitro and in vivo has become highly important in recent years. Some methods, such as induced coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy and UV-visible chemical titration using Prussian Blue (PB), already exist however they consist of the titration of the whole iron content. These standard methods need sample preparations leading to their destruction and long measurement time. In this study, we used magnetic susceptibility measurements (MSM) to titrate the concentration and biodistribution of magnetic particles in the organs of rats. The advantages of the MSM SPION quantification technique are presented and compared to widely used methods of iron oxide titration such as ICP and PB UV-visible titration. We have demonstrated that MSM is a simpler, faster (1 second per measurement), more reproducible and highly sensitive technique for SPION detection with minimal detection around 2 μgFe mL(-1) without being influenced by neither the SPION coating nor their surrounding environment. Moreover, MSM is a more robust method as it is not affected by endogenous iron facilitating the distinction of SPIONs (iron present as nanoparticles) from background iron in tissues. This advantage allows the decrease of control samples needed in biological studies. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that MSM is a standard method that can be easily setup to determine the biodistribution of SPIONs regardless of their environment.

Investigation of drinking water quality in Kosovo

In the recent years, not much environmental monitoring has been conducted in the territory of Kosovo. This study represents the first comprehensive monitoring of the drinking water situation throughout most of the territory of Kosovo. We present the distribution of major and minor trace elements in drinking water samples from Kosovo. During our study we collected 951 samples from four different sources: private-bored wells; naturally flowing artesian water; pumped-drilled wells; and public water sources (tap water). The randomly selected drinking water samples were investigated by routine water analyses using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) for 32 elements (Li, Be, B, Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Te, Ba, Tl, Pb, Bi, Th, U). Even though there are set guidelines for elemental exposure in drinking water worldwide, in developing countries, such as Kosovo, the lack of monitoring drinking water continues to be an important health concern. This study reports the concentrations of major and minor elements in the drinking water in Kosovo. Additionally, we show the variation of the metal concentration within different sources. Of the 15 regulated elements, the following five elements: Mn, Fe, Al, Ni, As, and U were the elements which most often exceeded the guidelines set by the EU and/or WHO.

Dust-mediated loading of trace and major elements to Wasatch Mountain snowpack

Depth-integrated snow columns were collected at 12 sites across the central Wasatch Mountains, Utah, during March and April 2010 to determine concentrations of trace elements, major anions and cations, and pH. Sample collection was conducted at or near maximum snow accumulation prior to the onset of melt, and included spring dust events driven by southerly pre-frontal winds. Snow samples were melted in the laboratory and subsampled for analyses on filtered (0.45 μm) and unfiltered fractions. All measured elements (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sr, Ti, Tl, U, V, and Zn) and major anions (Cl, NO(3), and SO(4)) displayed significant increases in concentration (for example, factor of 2 to 5 increases for As, Cr, Hg, and Pb) between the six sites sampled in March (prior to dust events) and the six sites sampled in April (after dust events). Acid neutralizing capacity and pH were also elevated in April relative to March snowpack. Comparison of elemental concentration in the particulate (>0.45 μm; difference between unfiltered and filtered concentration) and soluble (<0.45 μm; filtered concentration) fractions shows that the concentration increase between March and April snowpack for the trace elements is primarily a result of association with dust particles >0.45 μm. The results suggest that the majority of trace element loading to the Wasatch snowpack occurs via dust deposition. The major elements were primarily loaded in the <0.45 μm fraction, suggesting deposition of soluble dust particles. The overall findings of this paper are similar to other studies regarding the role of dust on nutrient and trace element accumulation in soils and lake sediments, but to our knowledge this is the first study that compares trace element chemistry of seasonal snowpack before and after dust deposition events.

Osteodifferentiation of human preadipocytes induced by strontium released from hydrogels

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in interactive application principles of biology and engineering for the development of valid biological systems for tissue regeneration, such as for the treatment of bone fractures or skeletal defects. The application of stem cells together with biomaterials releasing bioactive factors promotes the formation of bone tissue by inducing proliferation and/or cell differentiation. In this study, we used a clonal cell line from human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs or preadipocytes), named PA2-E12, to evaluate the effects of strontium (Sr²⁺) released in the culture medium from an amidated carboxymethylcellulose (CMCA) hydrogel enriched with different Sr²⁺ concentrations on osteodifferentiation. The osteoinductive effect was evaluated through both the expression of alkaline phophatase (ALP) activity and the hydroxyapatite (HA) production during 42 days of induction. Present data have shown that Sr²⁺ released from CMCA promotes the osteodifferentiation induced by an osteogenic medium as shown by the increase of ALP activity at 7 and 14 days and of HA production at 14 days. In conclusion, the use of biomaterials able to release in situ osteoinductive agents, like Sr²⁺, could represent a new strategy for future applications in bone tissue engineering.

Analysis of Trace Elements in Chinese Therapeutic Foods and Herbs

The bioactive elements in Chinese therapeutic foods and herbs that are frequently consumed by people in both the East and West are analyzed. These elements in their appropriate dosage range are considered to be beneficial to health. Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) were applied to determine the concentrations of various elements. Twenty-two Chinese therapeutic foods and herbs, resourced from the traditional high therapeutic quality areas or provinces were selected. Bioactive analysis focused on Lanthanum ( La ), Strontium ( Sr ), Zinc ( Zn ) and Selenium ( Se ), especially in the prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia and its associate disorders. The higher elemental concentration herbs, La in: Rhizoma Gastrodiae Elatae, Fructus Crataegi and Herba Hedyotidis Diffusae. Sr in: Radix Puerariae and Folium Ginkgo Biloba. Zn in: Flos Carthami Tinctorii and Fructus Crataegi. Se in: Flos Lonicerae Japonicae and Portulaca Oleracea. The results mainly showed that Chinese herbs which are also therapeutic foods may be used as nutritional supplements for preventing and treating elemental deficiency, e.g., hyperlipidemia. More attention in this regard should be paid to herbs that contain La and are traditionally used for regulating cardiovascular disorders. The knowledge of the effects and concentrations of bioactive elements in foods and herbs could guide the selection of Chinese herbs in clinical practice in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine theories. Further studies should also be considered in relation to Sr , Zn and blood regulating herbs, which could prove to be beneficial.

Advances in mass spectrometry for the identification of pathogens

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important technique to identify microbial biomarkers. The rapid and accurate MS identification of microorganisms without any extensive pretreatment of samples is now possible. This review summarizes MS methods that are currently utilized in microbial analyses. Affinity methods are effective to clean, enrich, and investigate microorganisms from complex matrices. Functionalized magnetic nanoparticles might concentrate traces of target microorganisms from sample solutions. Therefore, nanoparticle-based techniques have a favorable detection limit. MS coupled with various chromatographic techniques, such as liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, reduces the complexity of microbial biomarkers and yields reliable results. The direct analysis of whole pathogenic microbial cells with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization MS without sample separation reveals specific biomarkers for taxonomy, and has the advantages of simplicity, rapidity, and high-throughput measurements. The MS detection of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified microbial nucleic acids provides an alternative to biomarker analysis. This review will conclude with some current applications of MS in the identification of pathogens.

Plasma-assisted approaches in inorganic nanostructure fabrication

Plasma is a unique medium for chemical reactions and materials preparations, which also finds its application in the current tide of nanostructure fabrication. Although plasma-assisted approaches have been long used in thin-film deposition and the top-down scheme of micro-/nanofabrication, fabrication of zero- and one-dimensional inorganic nanostructures through the bottom-up scheme is a relatively new focus of plasma application. In this article, recent plasma-assisted techniques in inorganic zero- and one-dimensional nanostructure fabrication are reviewed, which includes four categories of plasma-assisted approaches: plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, thermal plasma sintering with liquid/solid feeding, thermal plasma evaporation and condensation, and plasma treatment of solids. The special effects and the advantages of plasmas on nanostructure fabrication are illustrated with examples, emphasizing on the understandings and ideas for controlling the growth, structure, and properties during plasma-assisted fabrications. This Review provides insight into the utilization of the special properties of plasmas in nanostructure fabrication.

Investigating the origin of tomatoes and triple concentrated tomato pastes through multielement determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and statistical analysis

The concentration of 32 elements (Al, As, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Ce, Cu, Dy, Fe, K, La, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Nd, Pb, Rb, Sm, Sr, Th, U, V, Zn) was determined in tomatoes harvested in different four Italian regions and in triple concentrated tomato paste samples coming from Italy, China, Greece and California. The resulting multielement profiles were processed using three chemometric techniques to evaluate the possibility of discrimination between different cultivation areas. The closed-vessel microwave digested samples were diluted and analyzed by DRC-ICP-MS with CH(4) as reaction gas. The accuracy of the proposed method was considered acceptable (values in the range 75-120%) for 25 out of the 35 elements of the reference material NCS ZC85006 Tomato. The origin of tomato fruits and the areas of production as "Italy" and "non-Italy" of the triple concentrated pastes were evaluated by three supervised pattern recognition procedures, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and K-nearest neighbors (KNN).

ICP-MS-based strategies for protein quantification

In the post-genomics era, proteomics has become a central branch in life sciences. An understanding of biological functions will not only rely on protein identification, but also on protein quantification in a living organism. Most of the existing methods for quantitative proteomics are based on isotope labeling combined with molecular mass spectrometry. Recently, a remarkable progress that utilizes inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) as an attractive complement to electrospray MS and MALDI MS for protein quantification, especially for absolute quantification, has been achieved. This review will selectively discuss the recent advances of ICP-MS-based technique, which will be expected to further mature and to become one of the key methods in quantitative proteomics.

Liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry for 13C isotopic analysis in life science research

Among the different disciplines covered by mass spectrometry, measurement of (13)C/(12)C isotopic ratio crosses a large section of disciplines from a tool revealing the origin of compounds to more recent approaches such as metabolomics and proteomics. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and molecular mass spectrometry (MS) are the two most mature techniques for (13)C isotopic analysis of compounds, respectively, for high and low-isotopic precision. For the sample introduction, the coupling of gas chromatography (GC) to either IRMS or MS is state of the art technique for targeted isotopic analysis of volatile analytes. However, liquid chromatography (LC) also needs to be considered as a tool for the sample introduction into IRMS or MS for (13)C isotopic analyses of non-volatile analytes at natural abundance as well as for (13)C-labeled compounds. This review presents the past and the current processes used to perform (13)C isotopic analysis in combination with LC. It gives particular attention to the combination of LC with IRMS which started in the 1990's with the moving wire transport, then subsequently moved to the chemical reaction interface (CRI) and was made commercially available in 2004 with the wet chemical oxidation interface (LC-IRMS). The LC-IRMS method development is also discussed in this review, including the possible approaches for increasing selectivity and efficiency, for example, using a 100% aqueous mobile phase for the LC separation. In addition, applications for measuring (13)C isotopic enrichments using atmospheric pressure LC-MS instruments with a quadrupole, a time-of-flight, and an ion trap analyzer are also discussed as well as a LC-ICPMS using a prototype instrument with two quadrupoles.

Evaluation of methods for trace-element determination with emphasis on their usability in the clinical routine laboratory

Commonly used techniques for trace-element analysis in human biological material are flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Elements that form volatile hydrides, first of all mercury, are analysed by hydride generation techniques. In the absorption techniques the samples are vaporized into free, neutral atoms and illuminated by a light source that emits the atomic spectrum of the element under analysis. The absorbance gives a quantitative measure of the concentration of the element. ICP-AES and ICP-MS are multi-element techniques. In ICP-AES the atoms of the sample are excited by, for example, argon plasma at very high temperatures. The emitted light is directed to a detector, and the optical signals are processed to values for the concentrations of the elements. In ICP-MS a mass spectrometer separates and detects ions produced by the ICP, according to their mass-to-charge ratio. Dilution of biological fluids is commonly needed to reduce the effect of the matrix. Digestion using acids and microwave energy in closed vessels at elevated pressure is often used. Matrix and spectral interferences may cause problems. Precautions should be taken against trace-element contamination during collection, storage and processing of samples. For clinical problems requiring the analysis of only one or a few elements, the use of FAAS may be sufficient, unless the higher sensitivity of GFAAS is required. For screening of multiple elements, however, the ICP techniques are preferable.

Dissolved inorganic carbon effect in the determination of arsenic and chromium in mineral waters by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

The analysis of some Italian mineral waters by ICP-MS has revealed errors in the determination of As and Cr in natural effervescent or carbonated waters due to the presence of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). This leads to overestimate As and Cr in 1% (v/v) HNO3 acidified samples, analysed within 1-2 h after the acidification. The overestimation of As concentration is caused by matrix interferences producing a signal enhancement due to the presence of dissolved inorganic carbon. This effect is analogous to that observed in the presence of organic carbon and occurs at millimolar DIC levels. The overestimation of Cr concentration is due to the 40Ar12C+ species interfering with 52Cr+ despite the use of the octopole reaction system. The optimization of the He flow in the collision cell can solve the latter problem, but the required increase in the flow rate decreases the sensitivity of the ICP-MS technique. The observed effects in CO2 rich mineral waters and artificial NaHCO3 solutions suggest that 5-10 mM DIC levels may affect the determination of As and Cr concentration in thermal waters, rivers, lakes and groundwaters.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS): a versatile tool

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry (MS) is routinely used in many diverse research fields such as earth, environmental, life and forensic sciences and in food, material, chemical, semiconductor and nuclear industries. The high ion density and the high temperature in a plasma provide an ideal atomizer and element ionizer for all types of samples and matrices introduced by a variety of specialized devices. Outstanding properties such as high sensitivity (ppt-ppq), relative salt tolerance, compound-independent element response and highest quantitation accuracy lead to the unchallenged performance of ICP MS in efficiently detecting, identifying and reliably quantifying trace elements. The increasing availability of relevant reference compounds and high separation selectivity extend the molecular identification capability of ICP MS hyphenated to species-specific separation techniques. While molecular ion source MS is specialized in determining the structure of unknown molecules, ICP MS is an efficient and highly sensitive tool for target-element orientated discoveries of relevant and unknown compounds. This special-feature, tutorial article presents the principle and advantages of ICP MS, highlighting these using examples from recently published investigations.

Determination of trace element in Italian virgin olive oils and their characterization according to geographical origin by statistical analysis

Multi-element analysis of organic virgin olive oils from different Italian regions was carried out by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) aiming at developing a reliable method in the traceability of the origin of oils. The data were processed by means of the chemiometric approach of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) that allows classifying unknown samples after checking possible differentiation of samples of known origin. An external calibration curve was build for the quantitative analysis. The calibration curves for each element were linear in the range between 0.01 and 100 ng mL(-1) and 0.2 to 2000 ng mL(-1), the correlation coefficients were ranging between 0.996 and 0.999. Results from spike and recovery experiments at levels of 30 and 65 ng mL(-1) were in the range of 91-119%, whereas the quantitation limits, based on 10 times standard deviation of the blank, were also in the range of 0.009-10.2 ng g(-1), for almost all the elements.

An overview of recent applications of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in determination of inorganic impurities in drugs and pharmaceuticals

The recent applications of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in determination of trace level inorganic impurities in drugs and pharmaceuticals have been reviewed. ICP-MS coupled with LC, GC and CE was used for speciation of heavy metals in pharmaceutical products. The review covers the period from 1995 to 2005 during which the technique was applied not only for determination of metallic impurities but also the assay of various trace elements in pharmaceuticals.