Determination of ethyl glucuronide in hair: a rapid sample pretreatment involving simultaneous milling and extraction.
A combination of simultaneous milling and extraction known as micropulverized extraction was developed for the quantification of the alcohol marker ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair samples using a homogeneous reference material and a mixer mill. Best extraction results from 50 mg of hair were obtained with 2-mL plastic tubes containing two steel balls (∅ = 5 mm), 0.5 mL of water and with an oscillating frequency of 30 s(-1) over a period of 30 min. EtG was quantified employing a validated GC-MS procedure involving derivatization with pentafluoropropionic acid anhydride. This micropulverization procedure was compared with dry milling followed by separate aqueous extraction and with aqueous extraction after manual cutting to millimeter-size snippets. Micropulverization yielded 28.0 ± 1.70 pg/mg and was seen to be superior to manually cutting (23.0 ± 0.83 pg/mg) and equivalent to dry grinding (27.7 ± 1.71 pg/mg) with regard to completeness of EtG extraction. The option to process up to 20 samples simultaneously makes micropulverization especially valuable for the high throughput of urgent samples.
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Richard-Willstätter-Strasse 11, 12489, Berlin, Germany.
Bettina
B
Mönch
Roland
R
Becker
Irene
I
Nehls
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005858:Germany; D005965:Glucuronates / Q000032:analysis*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods
D005965:Glucuronates; C093924:ethyl glucuronide