title: Simultaneous determination of volatile organic compounds with a wide range of polarities in urine by headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Some VOCs have been classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), because they can bind to DNA and cause cell mutations. Therefore, monitoring of VOCs in human urine is very important to evaluate the correlation between exposure to VOCs and human disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have developed an improved analytical method for the simultaneous determination of VOCs with a wide range of polarities in human urine samples by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In the improved method, a bi-polar carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane (CAR/PDMS) fiber was used for the optimized extraction of 15 VOCs with a wide range of polarities, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX), alkylbenzenes, cresols, and naphthalene, in human urine samples. Extracted VOCs from the human urine were effectively separated by GC using a mid-polarity column (DB-35, 35% phenylmethylpolysiloxane) and monitored by MS using extracted ion monitoring (EIM) mode.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Under the optimized method, the linearity of the calibration curves was greater than 0.993. The limits of detection (LODs) at a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of 3 were 0.3-0.6 ng/mL. The coefficients of variation were in the range of 0.1-9.7% for within-day variation and 0.2-14.2% for day-to-day variation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method was shown to be rapid and simple for the simultaneous determination of VOCs with a wide range of polarities in human urine and it could be applied to monitoring and to biomedical investigations to check exposure to VOCs. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Center for Chemical Analysis, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Daejeon, 305-600, Korea.|Department of Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Han-Na
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Center for Chemical Analysis, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Daejeon, 305-600, Korea.
authors.forename: Chong Hyeak
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Won-Yong
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Center for Chemical Analysis, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Daejeon, 305-600, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Hee
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1723-6389
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D016014:Linear Models; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052617:Solid Phase Microextraction / Q000379:methods*; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000652:urine*
chemical_list: D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds