Determination of acetone, hexanal and heptanal in blood samples by derivatization with pentafluorobenzyl hydroxylamine followed by headspace single-drop microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

In the study, we developed a simple, rapid, sensitive, and inexpensive method for determination of the disease biomarkers of acetone, hexanal and heptanal in human blood. For the first time, derivatization of carbonyls with O-2,3,4,5,6-(pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine (PFBHA) was combined with headspace single-drop microextractin (HS-SDME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and applied to the analysis of acetone, hexanal, and heptanal in human blood. At first, acetone, hexanal and heptanal in blood were derivatized with PFBHA and formed oximes in several seconds. Sequentially, the oximes were headspace extracted and concentrated by a microdrop solvent. Finally, the extracted oximes were analyzed by GC-MS. HS-SDME conditions and method validations were studied. Due to needing of only 2 μl organic solvent, short extraction time of 8 min, and simple operation, derivatization-HS-SDME was shown to be a rapid, simple, and inexpensive technique for analysis of acetone, hexanal, and heptanal in human blood. Moreover, it had low detection limit values from 0.24 to 0.62 nM, and good reproducibility (R.S.D. less than 12%).