Comparison of gas chromatography and liquid chromatography mass spectrometric measurements for high accuracy analysis of cholesterol in human serum by isotope dilution mass spectrometry

Cholesterol measurements are of vital clinical importance and reliable reference materials are essential for method validation. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is usually used for the high accuracy analysis of cholesterol by isotope dilution. A certified reference material for cholesterol content in human serum was analysed by isotope dilution utilising GC/MS and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS). The use of LC/MS avoided the need for a derivatisation step. Both LC/MS and GC/MS produced results on the measurement of cholesterol that agreed within 0.5% of the certified value. Moreover, the precision obtained for ratio measurement using both techniques are comparable and lead to relative expanded standard uncertainties (with a coverage factor of 2) varying between 0.2 and 0.5%. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.