Performance of atmospheric pressure gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of organochlorine pesticides in human serum

A novel method of atmospheric pressure gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (APGC-MS/MS) for the analysis of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in human serum was developed. Better sensitivity and selectivity were achieved compared to conventional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and GC-MS/MS. The limits of detection (LODs) of OCPs ranged from 0.22 to 0.90 pg/mL for the analysis in serum samples. The recoveries and repeatability of the developed method were evaluated from the analysis of spiked serum at three levels (0.05, 0.5, and 5 ng/mL). The recoveries ranged from 84.5 to 118.2%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 20%. The developed APGC-MS/MS method was applied to measure OCPs in pooled human serum from the interlaboratory comparison study. The obtained results of OCPs were within the acceptable ranges. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of OCPs in human serum samples with the sample volume of up to 100 mu L.