Fully automated analysis of estrogens in environmental waters by in-tube solid-phase microextraction coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A simple, rapid and sensitive method for the determination of five estrogens, estrone, 17beta-estradiol, estriol, ethynyl estradiol, and diethylstilbestrol, was developed using a fully automated method consisting of in-tube solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). These estrogens were separated within 8 min by HPLC using an XDB-C8 column and 0.01% ammonia/acetonitrile (60/40, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Electrospray ionization conditions in the negative ion mode were optimized for MS/MS detection of the estrogens. The optimum in-tube SPME conditions were 20 draw/eject cycles of 40 microL of sample using a Supel-Q PLOT capillary column as an extraction device. The extracted compounds were easily desorbed from the capillary by passage of the mobile phase, and no carryover was observed. Using the in-tube SPME LC/MS/MS method, good linearity of the calibration curve (r > or = 0.9996) was obtained in the concentration range from 10 to 200 pg/mL for all compounds examined. The limits of detection (S/N= 3) of the five estrogens examined ranged from 2.7 to 11.7 pg/mL. The in-tube SPME method showed 34-90-fold higher sensitivity than the direct injection method (5 microL injection). This method was applied successfully to the analysis of environmental water samples without any other pretreatment and interference peaks. Several surface water and wastewater samples were collected from the area around Asahi River, and estriol was detected at 35.7 pg/mL in the effluent of a sewage treatment plant. The recoveries of estrogens spiked into river waters were above 86%, except for estriol, and the relative standard deviations were below 0.9-8.8%.     

Rules for stating when a limiting value is exceeded

The paper describes rules for stating whether a measurement result indicates that the value of the measurand, e.g. the concentration of a substance in the blood, is in conformity or not in conformity with given specifications. Examples of the intended applications are control of doping in sports, alcohol level in drivers’ blood, trace metals levels in workers’ blood, the proportion of gold in alloys, certain ingredients in food products and pesticides in drinking water. When limiting value(s) have been established a permissible measurand value is said to be in conformity and a non-permissible value it is said to be in non-conformity. One of the following three statements is asserted: Statement A: The value of the measurand is beyond any reasonable doubt in conformity, Statement B: The value of the measurand is beyond any reasonable doubt in non-conformity, Statement C: Neither conformity nor non-conformity could be demonstrated. The test can be performed as either a one-stage or a two-stage procedure. A two-stage procedure is recommended as especially appropriate when a cheap and fast screening method can be used in the first stage. For normally distributed measurements, a freeware computer program, conform1e.exe, is available for the calculations of the probabilities for Statements A, B and C.     

DSC Investigation of some Testing and Calibration Compounds, Particularly During Cooling

Two compounds are described with interesting properties for use in DSC. The first compound is adamantane (C₁₀H¹⁶), with a reversible solid-solid transition at 208.62 K [1], suitable for DSC calibration at this low temperature [2]. The second compound is 4,4'-azoxyanisole (C₁₄H₁₄N₂O₃), with a liquid crystal range between 390 and 407 K [3]. This compound shows two transitions on heating, with a large heat effect at 390 K and a small heat effect at 407 K. For this reason, this substance is well suitable for testing the sensitivity and the resolution of DSC instruments [4]. For both compounds not only the heating, but also the cooling behaviour is investigated.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Compliance with legal requirements: definition of limits, sampling and measurement uncertainty

In many cases compositional requirements for foodstuffs (e.g. limits for the fat, protein, dry matter, or water content) are established by legislation. Adequate compliance testing is possible only if limits are clearly defined, taking measurement and sampling uncertainty into consideration. Furthermore, decisions on compliance must be based on samples which reflect the composition of the quantity to be evaluated. The resulting sample sizes are normally regarded by food inspection authorities as being much larger than acceptable. Consequently, an alternative strategy should be developed. Autocontrol data (i.e. inspection results obtained by the factory) in principle provide an adequate data basis for decisions on compliance. However, they must be reliable and the food inspection authority must have access to these data on request. Using these data and on condition that they show an approximate normal distribution, an inspection strategy based on arithmetic mean and standard deviation can be developed. Reliable and transparent decisions on compliance can thus be made. In many cases an adequate verification of food authenticity requires a comparison of raw material and product composition. Maximum acceptable differences, taking the relevant sources of variation into consideration, have to be defined and should be used instead of limits. Received: 17 April 2002 Accepted: 23 June 2002     

Factors affecting reproducibility in the manufacture of glass and siliceous glass open tubular (capillary) columns

Summary Column characteristics affecting the chromatographic behavior of glass and siliceous glass (fused silica) capillary columns include the dimensional uniformity of the column, the physical and chemical characteristics of the column wall and the characteristics of the liquid phase. In the case of the coated column the uniformity and thickness of the liquid phase film are the most important criteria affecting column reproducibility. The paper discusses these factors and their influence on column performance.Presented in part at the Symposium on Standardized Materials for Chromatography, 181 st National American Chemical Society Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, March 29–April 3, 1981.     

Production of milligram quantities of affinity tagged-proteins using automated multistep chromatographic purification

A new chromatography system, AKTAxpress (GE Healthcare, Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden) has been designed to meet the demand for high-throughput purification of proteins in structural genomics and drug discovery. The system offers a number of automated multistep purification protocols for affinity-tagged proteins. All protocols start with affinity chromatography followed by combinations of desalting, ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. As an option, tag removal can be included in the purification protocols. Up to 16 proteins can be purified per day and the yield can be as high as 50 mg of each protein at > 90% purity. To highlight the versatility of the system, this paper presents several case studies; purifications of hexahistidine- and glutathione S-transferase-tagged proteins using different protocols, automated on-column tag cleavage and optimization studies for a hexahistidine-tagged kinase.     

Automated portable analyzer for lead(II) based on sequential flow injection and nanostructured electrochemical sensors

A fully automated portable analyzer for toxic metal ion detection based on a combination of a nanostructured electrochemical sensor and a sequential flow injection system has been developed in this work. The sensor was fabricated from a carbon paste electrode modified with acetamide phosphonic acid self-assembled monolayer on mesoporous silica (Ac-Phos SAMMS) which was embedded in a very small wall-jet (flow-onto) electrochemical cell. The electrode is solid-state and mercury-free. Samples and reagents were injected into the system and flowed through the electrochemical cell by a user programmable sequential flow technique which required minimal volume of samples and reagents and allowed the automation of the analyzer operation. The portable analyzer was evaluated for lead (Pb) detection due to the excellent binding affinity between Pb and the functional groups of Ac-Phos SAMMS as well as the great concern for Pb toxicity. Linear calibration curve was obtained in a low concentration range (1-25 ppb of Pb(II)). The reproducibility was excellent; the percent relative standard deviation was 2.5 for seven consecutive measurements of 10 ppb of Pb(II) solution. Excess concentrations of Ca, Ni, Co, Zn, and Mn ions in the solutions did not interfere with detection of Pb, due to the specificity and the large number of the functional groups on the electrode surface. The electrode was reliable for at least 90 measurements over 5 days. This work is an important milestone in the development of the next-generation metal ion analyzers that are portable, fully automated, and remotely controllable.     

On-line solution stability determination of pharmaceuticals by capillary electrophoresis

Summary Good agreement between the impurity levels in a batch of a related impurity of ranitidine were obtained by CE and HPLC. A solution of the impurity was positioned on the CE autosampler and analysed sequentially. The extent of degradation was monitored by loss of main peak and the formation of two principal degradation products. It was found that after 9.25 hours only 2% area/area of the original impurity remained. Buffering of the sample solution to pH 7 was shown to minimise this degradation.Unattended in-situ stability testing of an solution of the impurity in water was performed by CE.     

Improvement of Pulse Amperometric Detection Integrated Automated Flow Injection Analysis of Ethylenethiourea Determination

Improvement of pulse amperometric detection (PAD) method is demonstrated in determination of ethylenethiourea (imidazolidine‐2‐thione, ETU). The anodic detection of ETU will produce polymeric film on an electrode leading to an inactive electrode surface. Here, the PAD method was used to remove the polymeric film formed on the electrode surface between ETU detection. Further, the scheme was integrated with automated flow injection analysis (AFIA) for determining ETU. The operational parameters of PAD in the AFIA system were discussed thoroughly. The analytical characteristics of the system were evaluated at optimum conditions. The linear range of calibration plot was between 20 to 300 μM (the correlative coefficient, r = 0.999) and the detection limit was 0.9 μM (S/N = 3). The relative standard deviations of detection of 50 μM ETU were 0.82% with and 9.07% without PAD scheme. The results indicate the system is a very promising tool for ETU determination. Finally, the matrix effects of two water samples that were collected from a campus and a farm show good recoveries of 92% and 96%.     

Optimisation of data handling and detection conditions for automated chromatographic assay software

Summary The principle of automated chromatographic peak detection and analysis software is summarized, and critical steps are systematically studied. As the only parameter to be entered is the acquisition frequency, evaluation of its effect on software performance is discussed. In the case of relatively noisy chromatograms, it is shown experimentally that numerous points per peak have to be taken, leading to quite fast computer acquisition procedures. The use of discrete Fourier transform filtration techniques can modify peak shapes and a comparative study evaluates the relative errors induced in the shapes and characteristics of the chromatographic profiles. Optimisation of filtering conditions is achieved and it is shown that for a filter position only 2% of the Nyquist frequency no deformation occurs in the chromatographic profile. Detection of the start and finish of chromatographic peaks is optimized according to a simple four step iterative procedure. In the case of simulations, the difference between the values used to simulate peaks and those calculated by the software are less than 1%.