Determination of serum nickel by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman-effect background correction: values in a normal population and a population undergoing dialysis

An atomic absorption spectrometric method with Zeeman-effect background correction for the determination of nickel, which requires only serum dilution with an aqueous surfactant, is described. The average nickel concentration in sera collected from 38 healthy adult volunteers was 0.14 +/- 0.09 micrograms l-1 of Ni, which is approximately four times lower than normals reported previously (0.65 +/- 0.35 or 0.46 +/- 0.26 microgram l-1 of Ni). The procedure yielded accurate results for the analysis of three different reference serum pools. A comparison of the average nickel concentrations from a patient population undergoing regular haemodialysis with our normal population showed that the average concentration of serum nickel in the dialysis patient group (n = 27 patients) was 46 times higher than normal (6.38 +/- 3.36 micrograms l-1 of Ni; n = 40 specimens).