One problem associated with clinical evaluation of platinum based complexes is the technology available for measuring platinum concentrations in intracellular compartments of patient samples. An emerging technology is RIS which has excellent sensitivity and ion selectivity. RIS uses lasers tuned to states specific for the desired element thereby allowing selective ionization without interference from unwanted elements. This minimizes the signal to noise ratio and enhances the sensitivity of the technique. Thus RIS may prove to a valuable tool for analyzing patient samples for platinum. The goals of this research are to develop instrumental and chemical techniques to enable researchers to use RIS for this purpose. Sample atomization options will be investigated in conjunction with quantitation options to minimize complexity and help ensure reliability of the technique.
