Direct Measurement of Trace Elements in Body Fluids

描述(申请人提供)：该项目涉及开发和应用一种低功耗、紧凑、可靠、易操作的体液(尿液、血液、血清/血浆)中痕量元素的仪器。该微量元素分析仪可用于患者对重大疾病进行研究和治疗的研究临床环境中。生物必需金属(铁、铜、锌)以及有毒、非必需微量元素(汞、铅、镉、砷)的异常水平被认为与许多健康疾病有关，如癌症、认知障碍和神经症状。在大多数神经退行性病变中，金属的参与是公认的。例如，过量的血清铜与阿尔茨海默病(AD)、帕金森病和威尔逊病有关。脑铁蓄积与几种神经系统疾病有关，一些罕见的如无纤维蛋白原血症，另一些常见的如AD和帕金森氏病(PD)。尽管人们认识到金属的重要性，但它们在体内并没有得到常规的监测或跟踪。这在很大程度上是由于测量体液中微量金属的难度和费用。获得此类测量认证的实验室在数量和区域分布上都是有限的。用于测量痕量金属的仪器和程序过于复杂和昂贵，无法在临床环境中使用。本项目将开发的台式痕量元素分析仪基于新的、功能强大的专有单色双弯曲晶体(DCC)X射线光学技术，大大提高了元素分析的效率和灵敏度。这种新的分析仪有可能极大地改变这种情况，因为它为临床应用提供了一种廉价、紧凑、可靠、易于使用的元素分析仪；降低了医疗保健成本，并提高了临床监测能力。通过为台式应用提供廉价、紧凑、可靠、易于使用的元素分析仪，拟议的新型微量元素分析仪有可能极大地改变临床实验室的状况。它可以通过降低医疗成本和改善周转时间来改善患者护理，从而对公共卫生产生积极影响。这种机器的适用性很广，包括测试儿童的铅水平，筛查汞中毒，评估铁超负荷疾病患者的铁水平(例如血色素沉着症、泛酸激酶II缺乏症)，监测接受螯合治疗的患者，以及对痴呆症或其他神经退行性疾病患者进行重金属筛查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project involves development and application of a low-power, compact, reliable, easy to operate instrument for measurement of trace elements in body fluids (urine, blood, serum/plasma). The trace element analyzer can be used in research clinic settings where patients undergo study and treatment for major diseases. Abnormal levels of bio-essential metals (iron, copper, zinc) as well as toxic, non- essential trace elements (mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic) are known to be associated with many health disorders such as cancer, cognitive impairment, and neurological symptoms. The involvement of metals is well established in most neurodegenerative pathologies. For example, excess serum copper is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, and Wilson's disease. Brain iron accumulation is associated with several neurological disorders, some rare like aceruloplasminemia, and others common such as AD and Parkinson's disease (PD). In spite of their recognized importance, metals are not routinely monitored or tracked in the body. This is due in large part to the difficulty and expense of trace metal measurements in body fluids. Laboratories certified for such measurements are limited in number and regional in distribution. The instruments and procedures used to measure trace metals are too complex and expensive to be used in clinical settings. The bench-top trace-element analyzer to be developed in this project is based on new, powerful, proprietary, monochromatic doubly curved crystal (DCC) x-ray optics technology that greatly increases the efficiency and sensitivity for elemental analysis. This new analyzer has the potential to change the situation dramatically by offering an inexpensive, compact, reliable, simple-to-use elemental analyzer for clinical applications; reducing health-care costs, and improving clinical monitoring capabilities. The proposed, new trace-element analyzer has the potential to change the clinical laboratory situation dramatically by offering an inexpensive, compact, reliable, simple-to- use elemental analyzer for benchtop applications. It can have a positive impact to public health by reducing health-care costs and improving turnaround times for better patient care. The applicability for such a machine is vast and includes testing lead levels in children, screening for mercury poisoning, assessing iron levels in patients with iron- overload disease (e.g., hemochromatosis, pantothenate kinase II deficiency), monitoring patients undergoing chelation therapy, and conducting a heavy metal screen for people with dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases.