Biological fluid screening and confirmation of bile acids by use of an integrated flow-injection-LC-evaporative light-scattering system

SummaryAn integrated flow-injection-liquid chromatographic system is presented for the screening of biological fluids for bile acids, and for subsequent confirmation. It is based on the use of a flow-injection configuration with an evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD), for routine screening for the total concentration of the analytes, followed by the individual determination, by liquid chromatography, of only those samples for which the total concentration is close to or above the normal level in healthy individuals. Bile acids are extracted from human serum and urine withn-hexane under acid conditions. After phase separation the organic layer is evaporated to dryness under a stream of nitrogen and redissolved in weakly alkaline solution (pH 8). The aqueous phase is then passed through a miniaturized Amberlite XAD-7 column for preconcentration and clean up, and eluted with acetonitrile-methanol, 65∶35 (v/v). The effluent is introduced directly into the ELSD for determination of the total bile-acid content of the sample. For confirmatory analysis another aliquot of the sample is processed in the screening module and the effluent from the adsorbent column is then directed to the chromatographic column to obtain the bile acid profile of the sample. Good agreement was obtained in the analysis of urine and serum samples by both procedures.