Reference intervals for cd, hg, Mn and Pb in the general children population (3–14 years) of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between June 2019 and June 2020

Table 1 Analytical methods

Biomarker		Method	CV	LOD	% < LOD	QA/QC
Cd	Blood	ICP-MS	< 10%	0.09 μg/L	28.5	G-EQUAS. LAMP, PCI, QMEQAS
Cd	Urine	ICP-MS	< 10%	0.04 μg/L	33.2
Hg	Blood	ICP-MS	< 15%	0.20 μg/L	30.9
Hg	Urine	ICP-MS	< 15%	0.04 μg/L	22.3
Mn	Blood	ICP-MS	< 15%	0.043 μg/L	2.5
Mn	Urine	ICP-MS	< 15%	0.032 μg/L	34.8
Pb	Blood	ICP-MS	< 10%	0.17 μg/dL	0.9
Pb	Urine	ICP-MS	< 10%	0.029 μg/L	6.6

RIQAS (www.randox.com); G-EQUAS (www.g-equas.de); QC quality control, QA quality assurance scheme. www.cetac.com. LAMP- the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Lead and Multielement Proficiency Program; PCI Interlaboratory Comparison Program for Metals in Biological Matrices, QMEQAS Quebec Multielement External Quality Assessment Scheme, CV inter-assay coefficient of variation, LOD limit of detection

ISSN: 2049-3258