Evaluation of Ion Exclusion Chromatography as a Method for Determining the Total Carbon Dioxide (TCO2) Concentration in Equine Plasma

Ion chromatography (IC), utilizing an ion exclusion column coupled to a conductivity detector (CD) via a post column reactor, had been evaluated for quantifying the Total Carbon dioxide (TCO2) level in equine plasma. The concentrations obtained from the analysis of the ASE linearity set correlated with the results obtained when the measurement was done using a Beckman EL-ISE ® instrument (R 2 = 0.998). Equine blood was analyzed using both instruments and the averaged absolute difference for 30 samples was 0.4 mM. The IC method was considered suitable for use to determine the compliance of 36 mM available CO2 per liter of plasma concentration threshold stated in the Malayan Racing Association’s (MRA) Regulations.