Although exogenous contamination and unreliable reference values have limited the utility of scalp hair as a biomarker of chemical elements exposure, its use in toxicological, clinical, environmental and forensic investigations is growing and becoming more extensive. Therefore, hair elemental analysis is reviewed in the current manuscript which spans articles published in the last 10 years. It starts with a general discussion of history, morphology and possible techniques for elemental analysis, where inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is clearly highlighted since this technique is leading quantitative ultra-trace elemental analysis. Emphasis over sampling, quality assurance, washing procedures and sample decomposition is given with detailed protocols compiled in tables as well as the utility of hair to identify human gender, age, diseases, healthy conditions, nutrition status and contamination sites. Isotope ratio information, chemical speciation analysis and analyte preconcentration are also considered for hair. Finally, the potential of laser ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) to provide spatial resolution and time-track the monitoring of elements in hair strands instead of conventional bulk analysis is spotlighted as a real future trend in the field.

中文翻译：

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元素头发分析：程序和应用审查

尽管外源性污染和不可靠的参考值限制了头皮作为化学元素暴露生物标志物的实用性，但其在毒理学、临床、环境和法医调查中的应用正在增长并变得越来越广泛。因此，头发元素分析在当前手稿中进行了审查，该手稿涵盖了过去 10 年发表的文章。它首先对元素分析的历史、形态和可能的技术进行了一般性讨论，其中电感耦合等离子体质谱 (ICP-MS) 得到了明显的强调，因为该技术引领了定量超痕量元素分析。强调取样、质量保证、洗涤程序和样品分解，并在表格中编制了详细的协议以及头发识别人类性别的效用，年龄、疾病、健康状况、营养状况和污染地点。头发的同位素比信息、化学形态分析和分析物预浓缩也被考虑在内。最后，激光烧蚀 ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) 提供空间分辨率和时间跟踪监测发束中的元素而不是传统的整体分析的潜力成为该领域未来真正的趋势。