Boron-10 Concentration Measurements Using the Solid-State Nuclear Track Detector CR-39 and Automatic Image Analysis

Calibration curves are determined for measuring the concentration of ¹⁰B in the blood of rats using an autoradiographic procedure, with the polycarbonate solid-state nuclear track detector CR-39 and an image analysis system for automatic track counting. The calibration curves indicate that for the etch procedure used, the nitrogen concentration in the blood is an important interfering input for ¹⁰B concentration measurements. By discriminating against small tracks, the sensitivity to the blood nitrogen concentration can be reduced to the point that a variation in the nitrogen weight fraction of 0.01 gN/g blood causes a variation in the predicted ¹⁰B concentration of 0.3 µg ¹⁰B/ml blood.