Quantitative analysis of toxic and essential elements in human hair. Clinical validity of results

Abstract

Over the last three decades, there has been an increasing awareness of environmental and occupational exposures to toxic or potentially toxic trace elements. The evolution of biological monitoring includes knowledge of kinetics of toxic and/or essential elements and adverse health effects related to their exposure. The debate whether a hair is a valid sample for biomonitoring or not is still attracting the attention of analysts, health care professionals, and environmentalists. Although researchers have found many correlations of essential elements to diseases, metabolic disorders, environmental exposures, and nutritional status, opponents of the concept of hair analysis object that hair samples are unreliable due to the influence of external factors. This review discusses validity of hair as a sample for biomonitoring of essential and toxic elements, with emphasis on pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical factors influencing results.

Hair concentration of essential trace elements in adult non-exposed Russian population

“…Hair has been widely used for chemical analysis for a long time (Kosanovic and Jokanovic 2011). The main advantages of the use of hair as a sample for trace element analysis are (i) simplicity and noninvasiveness of sampling, (ii) high mineralization of the sample, and (iii) irreversible incorporation of trace elements into hair matrix (Chojnacka et al 2010).…”

Multivariate Analysis of Trace Elements Distribution in Hair of Pleural Plaques Patients and Health Group in a Rural Area from China

“…Many studies have been conducted to investigate trace metals distributions in patients and health donors [13,16,[18][19][20]24]. Mean concentrations of Ca, Cd, Co, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sr and Zn are significantly higher in the hair of benign tumour patients than normal donors.…”

“…They act as catalytic or structural components of larger molecules such as enzymes, vitamins and proteins. However, deficiencies or excesses of essential elements such as Ca, Zn, Se, and Cu in human body may induce diseases [12,13]. Other elements such as As, Pb, and Cd may be harmful to human health, namely toxic element.…”

“…For instance, toxic heavy metals can affect chemical synaptic transmission in the brain and the peripheral central nervous system [16]. Therefore, trace element in human hair has been considered as a tool for routine clinical screening and diagnosis of many diseases [13]. In recent years, many investigations have been conducted to determined contents of trace elements in hair of patients, such as malignant and benign breast lesions, autism, obesity and diabetes, myocardial infarction patients, benign tumor patients, hypertensive patients, gastrointestinal cancer patients, prostate cancer patients, cerebral palsy patients, respiratory system diseases patients [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Micronutrient Deficiency Syndrome: Zinc, Copper and Selenium

“…Recently, hair analysis was introduced and misused as a diagnostic tool. Currently, the application of chemical analysis of hair in clinical practice is extremely limited [7,8].…”