Determination of Calcium in Biological Materials by means of the Plasma-jet

Abstract

THE calcium content of tissues may be determined by incineration followed by flame photometry or atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The variable composition of the ash of these materials and the presence of interfering ions preclude the possibility of using synthetic standards, and, in these circumstances, it is necessary, either to remove the interfering ions completely¹, to use the technique of self-standardization², or to use an ‘interference inhibitor’³. While all these methods are capable of giving results of good accuracy and precision they are somewhat tedious and time-consuming, particularly when a large number of determinations have to be carried out.