Determination of organic chemicals in human whole blood: Preliminary method development for volatile organics

Development of a Method for Measuring Volatile Organic Compounds in the Blood of Fire Victims Using ‘Purge and Trap’ Gas Chromatography

“…As it happens, the majority of chromatographic methods described in the literature [9][10][11][12][13][14] have been directed at studying the composition of the blood in normal healthy subjects, which necessitates detection of a large number of substances at very small concentrations. Most of these techniques require a large blood specimen, concentration of the volatile substances by purge and trap and detection by mass spectroscopy.…”

“…Among the methods most often used to measure volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is gas chromatography. The majority of the methods employ an extraction technique, such as the static head space or dynamic head space (purge and trap) methods, which offer extraction yields which are more or less elevated [9][10][11][12][13][14]. The problem with these methods is that they require a large blood sample.…”

Toxicological Profile for Ethylbenzene

“…Exposure to ethylbenzene may be determined by the detection of mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid in urine (Bardodej and Bardodejova 1970) or by direct detection of ethylbenzene in whole human blood (Antoine et al 1986;Ashley et al 1992;Cramer et al 1988) or urine (Wang et al 2007). However, mandelic acid and phenylglyoxilic acid are also metabolites of styrene (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 1992).…”

“…Numerous studies indicate that environmental exposures to ethylbenzene can result in detectable levels in human tissues (Antoine et al 1986;Cramer et al 1988;Pellizzari et al 1982;Wolff 1976;Wolff et al 1977) and in expired air (Conkle et al 1975;Engstrom and Bjurstrom 1978;EPA 1984e). Analysis of blood specimens from a test population of 250 patients (Antoine et al 1986) and composite samples obtained from blood donations of laboratory personnel with potentially low-level exposure (Cramer et al 1988) indicated ethylbenzene concentrations in the blood to range from below detection limits to 59 ppb.…”

“…Analysis of blood specimens from a test population of 250 patients (Antoine et al 1986) and composite samples obtained from blood donations of laboratory personnel with potentially low-level exposure (Cramer et al 1988) indicated ethylbenzene concentrations in the blood to range from below detection limits to 59 ppb. Similarly, ethylbenzene was detected in 8 of 12 milk samples from lactating women living in various urban areas of the United States with high probability of emissions of pollutants (Pellizzari et al 1982).…”