Invited critical review Hair analysis in health assessment Paulina Wołowiec a, 1 , Izabela Michalak a, ⁎, Katarzyna Chojnacka a, 2 , Marcin Mikulewicz b, 3 a Institute of Inorganic Technology and Mineral Fertilizers, Wroclaw University of Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-372 Wroclaw, Poland b Department of Dentofacial Orthopeadics and Orthodontics, Medical University of Wroclaw, Krakowska 26, 50-425 Wroclaw, Poland abstract article info Article history: Received 19 December 2012 Received in revised form 30 January 2013 Accepted 3 February 2013 Available online 13 February 2013 Keywords: Scalp hair Mineral composition Diagnosis Autism Cancer Background: Hair analysis is used for estimation of the nutritional status of individuals. In the present work, a systematic review on the relation between the mineral composition of hair and the physical or mental disorders is discussed. Detailed information of examined populations, methods of sample preparations and analytical techniques are presented. Methods: A systematic literature search in four electronic databases Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and Medline (from 1997 to 2012/01/31) for English language articles was performed. In addition, a reference list and manual search was undertaken. Results: The following number of studies was included: 66. Most of the authors reported that there exists a correlation between deficiency or excess of some elements in hair and occurrence of some diseases, such as: autism, cancer, hypertension, myocardial infarction, kidney disease and diabetes mellitus. However, not all results were consistent. Conclusions: Most of the authors concluded that the profile of hair mineral imbalance might be useful as a diagnostic tool for the early diagnosis of many diseases. However, it seems that there is a need to standardize sample preparation procedures, in particular washing and mineralization methods. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 2. Material and method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 3. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 3.1. Autism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 3.2. Cancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 3.3. Hypertensives/normotensives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 3.4. Myocardial infarction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 3.5. Kidney disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 3.6. Osteoarthritis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 3.7. Diabetes mellitus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 3.8. Other diseases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 1. Introduction For at least 50 years, determination of the level of trace elements in human scalp hair has been used to assess environmental and occupational exposure to toxic elements [1–3]. Hair analysis is also used for estimation of the nutritional status of individuals [2,4–8]. As compared to other human biological matrices (e.g. blood, urine), human hair is stable and therefore useful as a matrice. The content Clinica Chimica Acta 419 (2013) 139–171 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 71 3203793; fax: +48 71 3203469. E-mail addresses: paulina.wolowiec@pwr.wroc.pl (P. Wołowiec), izabela.michalak@pwr.wroc.pl (I. Michalak), katarzyna.chojnacka@pwr.wroc.pl (K. Chojnacka), mikulewicz.marcin@gmail.com (M. Mikulewicz). 1 Tel.: +48 71 3203793; fax: +48 71 3203469. 2 Tel.: +48 71 3204325; fax: +48 71 3203469. 3 Tel.: +48 71 7840299. 0009-8981/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2013.02.001 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Clinica Chimica Acta journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/clinchim