Pathogenic bacteria: their detection and differentiation by rapid lipid profiling with pyrolysis mass spectrometry

Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (Py-MS) can be used to profile methylated fatty acids from bacterial pathogens without a chromatographic step, An in situ thermal hydrolysis and methylation (THM) step incorporated into the Py-MS analysis of whole bacteria reduces the sample preparation time from 60 min to less than 1 min. Detection of four bacterial pathogens with a field-portable aerosol-sampling Py-ion trap MS using FAME profiles from whole bacteria is demonstrated with a total analysis time of less than 10 min/lipid profile. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.