Application of GC-MS with a SPME and thermal desorption technique for determination of dimethylamine and trimethylamine in gaseous samples for medical diagnostic purposes

Abstract

Biogenic amines are interesting compounds which may be of use for medical diagnosis or therapeutic monitoring. The present paper deals with the problems that occur with concentration determination of dimethylamine (DMA) and trimethylamine (TMA). These occur in the breath of people suffering from renal disease. The measurement of amines present in trace concentrations requires the application of suitable analytical methods during sampling, storage and preconcentration. This is particularly so due to their polar and basic properties. In this paper, the application of solid phase microextraction (SPME) and thermal desorption (TD) with subsequent measurement by GC-MS for the determination of amines is discussed. For DMA, preconcentration by SPME did not give satisfactory results. TMA may be analysed using SPME preconcentration with an LOD of 1.5 ppb. Thermal desorption with Tenax as the adsorbing material allows reliable concentration determination for TMA (LOD = 0.5 ppb) and DMA (LOD = 4.6 ppb). DMA cannot be stored reliably in Tedlar bags and longer storage on Tenax (with subsequent TD) does not give good repeatability of results. For TMA, storage can be done on Tenax or in bags, the best results for the latter being achieved with Flex Foil bags.

Combined chemical and optical methods for monitoring the early decay stages of surrogate human models

“…liver patients, mouth halitosis) [26], in the headspace of human urine [27] or from other biological processes including waste water treatment plants, sewage systems and waste decay [28,29]. Moreover, trimethylamine is highly evolved in the breath of patients with uremia [30]. Additionally, acetone and isoprene are also found on human exhaled air and are present in the gas phase of urine and blood [31].…”

Novel Flow‐through Potentiometric System for Dimethyamine Assessment Using New Ion Exchangers Doped‐polymeric Membrane Sensors

“…It should be noted that most of the previously reported methods for DMA determination have some serious limitations. These are: the need for time consuming derivatization or pre‐concentration extraction steps , application at high temperatures (300–700 °C) , narrow range of measurement (less than one order of magnitude of concentration) short life time (60 hours) , high cost (US$ 400–800) not selective or not suitable for measuring concentrations above 5 μg mL −1 . The proposed potentiometric DMA sensors, however, offer several advantages compared with many of those previously published.…”

“…However, little is known about the methods used for the quantification of dimethylamine. Currently, some techniques have been used for the quantification of low‐molecular weight aliphatic amines including titrimetry, colorimetry , ion chromatography , high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) , gas chromatography (GC) , and capillary electrophoresis (CE) . A liquid chromatographic method for determining dimethylamine after a prior micro‐extraction and two‐stage derivatization with o‐phthalaldialdehyde and 9‐fluorenylmethyl chloroformate has been advocated .…”

Detection of Volatile Malodorous Compounds in Breath: Current Analytical Techniques and Implications in Human Disease

“…1.5 ppm [197]; Blood-borne [205] 0.061 ppm [197] ND ND 160,195] 0.081 208; 0.033 ppm [197]; Blood-borne [141,154] 0.001…”

“…Most of these compounds are not yet easily measurable. For amines, in particular, one has to take into account interaction with the walls of storage containers or tubing [59,195].…”