Identification of trimethyllead in urine by high-performance liquid chromatography with column switching and chemical reaction detection and by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Incorporated tetraalkyllead compounds are metabolized in the liver and the highly toxic trialkyllead species are excreted via the urine. The procedure for the determination of these metabolites in urine consists of solid-phase enrichment, reversed-phase pre-column high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and chemical reaction detection. As urine is a very complex matrix, it must be questioned whether the retention time alone is a sufficient criterion for the identification of the analytes. For the trimethyllead ion the validity of the results was examined by selectivity checks of the chemical reaction detector, by the application of different stationary and mobile phases in single and dual pre-column HPLC systems and by the use of thermospray LC-mass spectrometry as an independent method. The results demonstrated that the recommended method is accurate for the determination of trimethyllead in urine samples.