Concentrations of Acetone in Venous Blood Samples from Drunk Drivers, Type-I Diabetic Outpatients, and Healthy Blood Donors

Abstract

Headspace gas chromatography (HSGC) was used to measure the concentrations of acetone in samples of venous whole blood from drunk drivers (n = 500), hospital outpatients with type-I diabetes mellitus (n = 250), and healthy blood donors (n = 288). The standard deviation (SD) of blood-acetone determination by HSGC was 0.048 mg/L at a mean concentration of 2.34 mg/L (2.1%). The concentration of acetone in blood did not change significantly when the samples were stored at 4 degrees C for eight days. The ratio of the concentrations of acetone in plasma and whole blood was 1.23:1 (SD 0.229, n = 22). The frequency distributions of blood-acetone concentrations were markedly skewed to the right. The median concentration of acetone in blood from drunk drivers was 2.03 mg/L and the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles were 0.80 and 12.8 mg/L, respectively. In patients with type-I diabetes mellitus, the median blood-acetone concentration was 1.90 mg/L and the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles were 0.40 and 11.1 mg/L, respectively. In healthy blood donors, the median blood-acetone level was 1.26 mg/L and the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles were 0.37 and 4.69 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of acetone in blood did not differ appreciably among these three groups of subjects.

A simple and rapid method for urinary acetone analysis by headspace/gas chromatography

“…Salt addition was studied to determine the salting out effect on analyte extraction, as indicated by some investigators who use headspace technique for several volatile chemicals extraction 26,27,29,30 . According to Seto 29 the solubility of many non-electrolyte compounds is reduced by salt addition due to an increase in the activity coefficient (y).…”

“…The complex composition of the biological matrix can strongly affect the headspace technique since the various components can alter volatilization of the analytes 26,27 . The effect of matrix on UAc determination can be observed in Figure 3.…”

“…The concentration range was chosen according to the backgrounds levels variation 5,17,26,28,[31][32][33][34] .…”

“…The static headspace technique is extensively used to determine volatile substances 2,3,17,[25][26][27][28] . This technique is simple, requires little sample handling and eliminates non-volatile interferents that might contaminate the GC injector and FID detector.…”

“…This technique is simple, requires little sample handling and eliminates non-volatile interferents that might contaminate the GC injector and FID detector. The critical point is the equilibrium between the condensed phase and the vapor phase [25][26][27][28][29] and several parameters must be optimized to guarantee maximum analyte recovery and sensitivity of the method. Since the determination of urinary acetone is of interest in various situations, the objective of the present study was to optimizing a rapid and low cost technique that could be applied in clinical and toxicological routine analysis in laboratories with limited resources, establishing the better conditions to extract AcU by static headspace and to quantify by GC/FID.…”