The ECHO technique--the more effective way of data evaluation in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of ECHO technique in pesticide residue analysis using LC/MS/MS instruments with atmospheric pressure chemical (APCI) and electrospray (ESI) ionization. The technique is based on simultaneous injections of reference standards and samples in one run. First and second injections are made ahead and behind a precolumn, respectively, thus resulting in a short difference of retention times between standard and sample peak. The obtained couple of peaks were applied to the easy detection of pesticides and simultaneous estimation of the residue content in real samples in a single run. If residues were not observed, the second sample peak did not occur and the ECHO peaks were used to demonstrate instrument performance in each run and for each analyte. Another advantage of ECHO technique is its potential to compensate matrix effects. The occurrence and compensation of matrix effects using APCI was tested with four matrix types (water containing, acidic, dry and sugar containing) and 22 pesticides. The same matrix types but 58 pesticides were used tests with electrospray ionization. Most often matrix effects had been observed with lemon. The percentage of pesticides showing significant matrix effects did not differ between APCI and ESI. But these effects caused signal enhancement in APCI measurements and signal suppression, when ESI was used. The ECHO technique was able to compensate many matrix effects in measurements with both types of ion sources.