Determination of toxic and essential trace elements in serum of healthy and hypothyroid respondents by ICP-MS: A chemometric approach for discrimination of hypothyroidism

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry ((ICP-MS)) was used to determine three toxic (Ni, As, Cd) and six essential trace elements (Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Se) in blood serum of patients with hypothyroidism (Hy group) and healthy people (control group), in order to set the experimental conditions for accurate determination of a unique profile of these elements in hypothyroidism. Method validation was performed with standard reference material of the serum by varying the sample treatment with both standard and collision mode for analysis of elements isotopes. Quadratic curvilinear functions with good performances of models and the lowest detection limits were obtained for ⁵²Cr, ⁶⁶Zn, ⁷⁵As, ¹¹²Cd in collision mode, and ⁵⁵Mn, ⁵⁹Co, ⁶⁰Ni, ⁶⁵Cu, ⁷⁸Se in standard mode. Treatment of serum samples with aqueous solution containing nitric acid, Triton X-100 and n-butanol gave the best results. Chemometric tools were applied for discrimination of patients with hypothyroidism. All nine elements discriminated Hy group of samples with almost the same discriminating power as indicated by their higher values for this group of patients. Statistically significant correlation (p < 0.01) was observed for several elements. Results indicated clear differences in element profile between Hy and control group and it could be used as a unique profile of hypothyroid state.