Trace elements in glaucoma – The impact of analytics

Abstract

AbstractEye diseases, such as glaucoma are leading causes of irreversible vision loss in industrialized countries. Eye diseases have multifactorial pathogenesis, where heavy metal body burden and/or trace element misbalances are accepted causes aside from genetic factors or intraocular pressure in glaucoma. Heavy metals and misbalances in redox‐active trace elements are prone to affect eye‐related health via increased oxidative stress. In this study trace elements and heavy metals were analyzed in aqueous humour samples by Flow‐Injection (FI)‐Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. The FI‐mode was used to adopt sample introduction to the very low sample volume available. Samples were analyzed in triplicates using standard mode (best sensitivity for Co, Cd, Hg, Pb), dynamic reaction cell (DRC) mode with ammonia as reaction gas (interference elimination best for Mn, Fe Cu, Zn) and DRC with methane as reaction gas for Se. 5‐point calibration curves in the ranges 0‐1000 ng/l for Cd, Hg, Mn, Pb, Se or 0‐100 µg/l for Cu, Fe, Zn showed R2 = 0.989 for Zn and R2 better than 0.999 for the other elements. Analysis of glaucoma patients revealed an unchanged selenium aqueous humor level of POAG patients compared to controls. However, age‐group and sex dependent trends were seen, i.e. a slight increase for the selenium quantiles in POAG and PEXG patients (age 47–60 years), decrease for the first selenium quantile (61–68 years) and an increase of the third tertiles for 70–85 years.