Aluminium

Aluminium monitoring is of vital importance to patients with chronic renal failure being treated with intermittent hemodialysis. Aluminium sources in these patients are dialysate contamination and the ingestion of aluminium-containing medications. The development of unbiased and precise methods, for the determination of aluminium in biological materials is crucial to monitoring these hemodialysis patients after areas of aluminium toxicity. Several techniques have been used for the determination of aluminium, the best being neutron activation analysis, inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The latter technique has been most widely used. Separation of aluminium species in plasma can be accomplished by ultrafiltration and by gel permeation chromatography. Several forms of aluminium appear to exist in plasma. Many types of specimens have been used to assess biological effects of aluminium; serum and bone samples have provided the best clinical information. Collection and processing of specimens must be carried out in such a manner as to minimize contamination.