title: Determination of nicotine and four metabolites in the serum of smokers by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.
abstract: A simple and reliable reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with ultraviolet detection is described for the quantitation of nicotine and its metabolites cotinine, trans-3'-hydroxycotinine, norcotinine and cotinine N-oxide in human serum. The analytes and the internal standard, N-ethylnorcotinine, were extracted by solid-phase extraction before chromatography. Two different columns and mobile phases with gradient systems were used. The detection limit of the assay was 10 ng/ml for nicotine, 3 ng/ml for cotinine N-oxide and 5 ng/ml for cotinine, trans-3'-hydroxycotinine and norcotinine. The concentrations of nicotine and its metabolites in the serum of 12 cigarette smokers are reported.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zuccaro
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Altieri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Passa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pichini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ricciarello
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pacifici
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D003367:Cotinine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D009538:Nicotine / Q000097:blood*; D012907:Smoking / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: C066333:norcotinine; C001381:hydroxycotinine; C001605:cotinine-N-oxide; D009538:Nicotine; D003367:Cotinine