Simultaneous and cost-effective determination of ethylene glycol and glycolic acid in human serum and urine for emergency toxicology by GC-MS

Objectives: A simple, cost-effective, and fast gas chromatography method with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS) for simultaneous measurement of ethylene glycol, 1,2-propylene glycol and glycolic acid was developed and validated for clinical toxicology purposes. Design and methods: Successful derivatization of glycolic acid with isobutyl chloroformate was achieved directly in serum/urine while glycols are simultaneously derivatized by phenylboronic acid. The entire sample preparation procedure is completed within 10 min. Results: The assay was proved to be quadratic in the range of 50 to 5000 mg L-1 with adequate accuracy (96.3-105.8%) and precision (CV <= 8.9%). Conclusion: The method was successfully applied to quantify the selected compounds in serum of patients from emergency units and the results correlated well with parallel GC-FID measurements (R-2 0.9933 for ethylene glycol and 0.9943 for glycolic acid). (C) 2014 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.