Study of elemental distribution in urinary stones by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

Bio-mineral structures, i.e., bones, teeth or kidney stones have been found to be excellent "archives" related to nutrition, living habits and exposure to changing environmental conditions. More specifically, formation of urolithic concrements (uroliths) represents specific biomineralization of living organism. Line scans of the concrement cross-sections may provide information about the accumulation history of the elements of interest. Analytical methods which can map the presence of different elements are e.g. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Both of these methods have proven to be suitable for mapping the matrix elements, so further work is concerned with their use for the mapping of trace elements.