Measurement of trace element content in bone samples using long-lived neutron activation products and high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry

Abstract

A nondestructive instrumental neutron activation analysis with high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry of long-lived radionuclides was developed and used for measurement of trace element contents in samples of bone to determine health and diseases. Using this method, the silver (Ag), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), rubidium (Rb), antimony (Sb), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) mass fractions were estimated in bone samples from 27 patients with intact bone (12 females and 15 males, aged from 16 to 49 years) who had died from various non-bone-related causes, mainly unexpected traumas, and from 5 patients with chondroma (2 females and 3 males, 15–42 years old), obtained from open biopsies or after operation. The reliability of the differences in the results between intact bone and bone affected by chondroma was evaluated by a parametric Student’s t test and a nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test. It was found that in the bone affected by chondroma, the mean mass fractions of Co, Cr, Fe, Se, Sb, and Zn were significantly higher than in normal bone tissues. In the neoplastic bone, many correlations between trace elements found in the control group were no longer evident. This work revealed that there is a significant disturbance of the trace element metabolism in bone affected by chondroma.