ISOTOPE-DILUTION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY FOR PLATINUM DETERMINATION IN URINE

The therapeutic importance of platinum (Pt) compounds, the growing accessibility of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) systems in clinical laboratories, and the lack of a mass spectrometric method for the determination of Pt in biological samples motivated us to develop an isotope dilution GC/MS assay for Pt. The method is based on the use of lithium bis(trifluoroethyl)dithiocarbamate, Li(FDEDTC), as a chelating agent and enriched Pt-192 for isotope dilution. Conditions were optimized for the precise and accurate determination of isotope ratios of Pt by using a 10-m DB-1 fused silica capillary column and a reverse-geometry double-focusing mass spectrometer with selected ion monitoring. An overall precision of 1% was obtained by combining within-run precision and between-run precision at the 10-ng level. No appreciable memory effect was observed when samples with different isotope ratios were analyzed sequentially. The method was validated by the quantitation of Pt in National Institute of Standards and Technology freeze-dried urine sample SRM 2670. A concentration value of 125 +/- 6-mu-g/L (n = 6) was obtained by using four different sets of isotope ratios in the molecular ion and supports the National Institute of Standards and Technology recommended value of 120 +/- ? -mu-g/L. Limits-of-quantitation, estimated at 3-mu-g/L, are made possible by the high sensitivity of the method and the low blank value for Pt.