Determination of thirty-two elements in human autopsy tissue

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentrations of 32 elements in the human liver and kidney and 20 elements in the bone, obtained from 70 autopsied dead individuals (54 males, 16 females) between 18 and 76 yr of age from the North Bohemia territory of the Czech Republic. Geometric means, median, minimal-maximal range, as well as distribution and correlation analysis were calculated. Some significant differences among tissue concentrations of trace elements of the women and men were found. In the Liver, medians of the concentrations of some elements were higher for men than that for women (Al: 770 vs 610 mu g/kg; As: 42 vs 27 mu g/kg; Cd: 1800 vs 1390 mu g/kg; Rb: 3955 vs 3210 mu g/kg; V: 160 vs 105 mu g/kg). On the contrary, the content of other elements for men was lower (Bi: 0.8 vs 3.2 mu g/kg; Cr: 57 vs 72 mu g/kg; Hg: 228 vs 325 mu g/kg; Zn: 57.1 vs 68.5 mg/kg). In the kidney of men, there were higher contents of Al (360 vs 245 mu g/kg) and Hg (135 vs 75 mu g/kg) and lower contents of Zn (47.7 vs 59.7 mg/kg) and I (135 vs 220 mu g/kg) than those of women. In the case of bone, the concentrations of Cu and Rb were higher for men (1410 mu g Cu/kg and 405 mu g Rb/kg, respectively) than for women (655 mu g Cu/kg and 285 mu g Rb/kg, respectively). On the contrary, the content of Mn was considerably lower for men (110 mu g Mn/kg) than for women (215 mu g Mn/kg).