Determination of Perfluorinated Carboxylic Acids in Human Plasma by CE-MS/MS

This application note describes a sensitive and reliable method for the determination of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) in human plasma. PFCAs were extracted from a plasma sample using an optimized QuEChERS protocol, followed by CE-MS/MS analysis. The optimal separation of investigated PFCAs was achieved in less than 9 minutes using 25 mM ammonium acetate buffer and 1 % isopropanol (pH 7.0) as the background electrolyte (BGE), with a fused silica capillary and detection by ESI-MS/MS. The coefficients of determination (R2) of the calibration curves in matrix-matched samples, in the range of 5 to 200 μg/L, were greater than 0.995. The limit of detection (LOD), based on three times the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), for all compounds ranged from 0.10 to 0.34 μg/L. The relative recoveries at a spiking level of 5 μg/L ranged from 96 % to 105 %, with standard deviations not greater than 8.0 %.