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Analysis of Eight Nutrient Elements in Whole Blood of Children and Adolescents Using Inductively Coupled Plasma‐Mass Spectrometry

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Abstract

Few researches have been conducted on elements in whole blood of young people. Our study was to investigate the influence of age, gender and season on the contents of magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), selenium (Se), and strontium (Sr) as well as to establish reference intervals (RIs). We conducted a retrospective study of 589 apparently healthy children and adolescents. Quantitative analysis had been carried out using inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Test results were analyzed using and MannWhitney U test, Spearman and Pearson statistical analyses. RIs were defined by using 95% confidence interval. Differences between contents of Mg, Fe, Cu, and Zn in girls’ and boys’ whole blood were found. Positive correlations for Fe, Zn, Se, and Sr, while negative for Ca and Cu were found with age. Increasing trends were found for Fe, Zn, and Se, while for Ca and Cu, changes were even decreasing for children and teenagers. The most frequently correlating element pairs were FeZn, MgSe, and FeSe in five successive age groups. Lower contents of Mg, Ca, Fe, Zn, and Se were found in summer. Finally, the reference interval of each element was initially established according to age and gender grouping. The contents of elements in whole blood vary depending mainly on the gender and age of children and adolescents. The reference intervals of elements in whole blood grouped by age and gender provide a reference basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment of element-related diseases.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and analyzed in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ICP-MS:

Inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry

RIs:

Reference intervals

Mg:

Magnesium

Ca:

Calcium

Fe:

Iron

Cu:

Copper

Zn:

Zinc

Mn:

Manganese

Se:

Selenium

Sr:

Strontium

CLSI:

Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute

CVs:

Coefficient of variations

LOD:

Limit of detection

LOQ:

Limit of quantification

SD:

Standard deviation

QC:

Quality controls

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all those who participated in this study.

Funding

This work was financially supported by grants from the Key Development Program of Shandong Province (grant no.: 2018GSF118116), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant no.: ZR2020MH307), Science and Technology Development Program of Shandong Province (grant no.: 2017GSF218005), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81101484).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, No. 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China

    Fang Luan, Yanqiu Xu, Xuerui Jiang, Xiangrui Guo, Shiqing Cheng & Yong Wang

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Bin Liu

  3. Department of Pediatry, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Shuzhen Sun & Yuan Chen

Authors
  1. Fang Luan
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  2. Bin Liu
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  3. Shuzhen Sun
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  4. Yuan Chen
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  5. Yanqiu Xu
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  6. Xuerui Jiang
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  7. Xiangrui Guo
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  8. Shiqing Cheng
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  9. Yong Wang
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Contributions

FL and YW conceived and designed the study. SS, YC, YX, XJ, XG, and SC contributed to the acquisition of data. FL, BL, and YW analyzed the data and wrote the paper. All authors assisted in revising the text and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Wang.

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Ethics Approval

This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shandong First Medical University in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (ethical approval number is SWYX: No.2020–152).

Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

Consent for Publication

Participants were provided a study overview and verbal consent was attained.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Luan, F., Liu, B., Sun, S. et al. Analysis of Eight Nutrient Elements in Whole Blood of Children and Adolescents Using Inductively Coupled Plasma‐Mass Spectrometry. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 3078–3087 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02928-3

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