title: Application of mass spectrometric methods to analysis of xenobiotics in biological systems.
abstract: Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) has been identified and quantitated at the parts-per-trillion level in three studies involving tissue. The first was an analysis of human milk from mothers in forest areas of the USA where herbicides containing 2,3,7,8-TCDD had been used. The second concerned US veterans of the Vietnam war who may have been exposed to 2,3,7,8-TCDD via contact with the defoliant, Agent Orange. The third was a controlled investigation of the fate of 2,3,7,8-TCDD in the tissue of an exposed rhesus monkey. Mass spectrometry has also been used to develop new methods for trace analysis. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, negative chemical ionization, mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry and Fourier transform mass spectrometry are described as examples.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004147:Dioxins / Q000032:analysis*; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000032:analysis; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014728:Veterans
chemical_list: D004147:Dioxins; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins