Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is applied to investigate the effect of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the elemental composition of fingernails. Measurements are carried out on 85 fingernail clippings including 51 diabetic and 34 control subjects. An auto-focus system has been designed and used in experiments to improve the repeatability of LIBS measurements. Classification of diabetic and nondiabetic subjects is examined using discriminant function analysis (DFA) method. This classification is based on 82 atomic, ionic, and molecular emission lines belonging to 13 elements as well as one molecule of fingernails. Emission lines that can be used as the best predictors are identified. The possibility of using this method for screening purposes is discussed based on the classification results. This preliminary work shows the ability of LIBS of fingernails in discrimination of DM patients and nondiabetic subjects using DFA method and its feasibility in screening purposes.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a novel technique for elemental analysis of materials. The repeatability of LIBS results is an important issue in many applications. Many factors influence the repeatability of LIBS results. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of laser beam focusing position or lens to sample distance (LTSD) as one of the most important factors influencing LIBS spectra. A point auto-focus system is designed and applied to provide the same lens to sample distance in every LIBS experiment. This system is employed and the result is compared to that of non-auto-focus technique on samples with different degrees of evenness such as aluminum, paper, tape and human fingernail. The standard deviation of this experiment is measured in the range of 4 to 26 μm. Then, spectrum's repeatability is examined with two samples of aluminum and human fingernail. The standard deviation of spectra is considerably reduced. In conclusion, repeatability of LIBS results could be optimized by using the auto-focus system.

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