title: Determination of glyphosate and its metabolite in emergency room in Korea.
abstract: The number of glyphosate intoxication cases has been increased after the regulation of paraquat. Unfortunately, there are no reports on the potential concentration of glyphosate for those acute intoxicated patients admitted to emergency rooms and the correlation between the concentration of glyphosate and clinical symptoms in Korea up to our knowledge. As a nonselective herbicide, analysis of glyphosate requires derivatization because of its amphoteric and strongly polar nature. In order to develop a method to determine the concentration of glyphosate and its metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in blood samples without derivatization, liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was utilized with a hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) column. The validation of this method showed that the limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantitation (LOQs) for glyphosate and AMPA were 50 and 100ng/mL, respectively. In addition, matrix effect, recovery rate, and accuracy and precision in intra and inter-day were evaluated during the validation study of this method. Blood samples acquired from five glyphosate intoxicated patients were analyzed to investigate the correlation between the concentration of glyphosate and clinical symptoms. These patients were previously admitted to the emergency room at a University Hospital in Korea after glyphosate was self-administered in suicide attempts or by accident. As results of blood sample study, the concentration of glyphosate and AMPA were found in the range of 1.0-171.1 and 0.2-2.6μg/mL, respectively. The concentration ratio of glyphosate to AMPA was 55-71. According to the clinical reports for those patients, they were in the age between 47 and 82 years old and administered about 50-400mL. The blood samples were collected within 2-5h after administration of glyphosate. Among the intoxicated patients, the most common clinical symptom was metabolic acidosis, identified in four patients. The comparison between the concentration of glyphosate and administered dosage did not show the correlation, which suggests further investigation on the effects of surfactants in glyphosate from different vendors.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hys5782@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: munankiki@naver.com.
authors.forename: Hantae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hyg3543@hanmail.net.
authors.forename: Youngki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: thdgml0701@nate.com.
authors.forename: Songhee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Chungnam National University Hospital, Daejeon 301-721, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: gardenjun@hanmail.net.
authors.forename: Won-Joon
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea; Division of Earth and Environmental Science Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang 363-883, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: kslee@kbsi.re.kr.
authors.forename: Kwang-Sik
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hschung@cnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Heesun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005998:Glycine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010269:Paraquat / Q000506:poisoning*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056910:Republic of Korea; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000097797:Glyphosate
chemical_list: D005998:Glycine; D010269:Paraquat; D000097797:Glyphosate
keywords: Blood concentration; Clinical symptoms; Glyphosate; Intoxicated patients; Metabolite; Tandem mass spectrometry