Headspace solid-phase micro-extraction and gas chromatography with micro-electron capture detection for the measurement of p,p'-DDE in rat whole blood and hair.

A sensitive, specific, and reproducible capillary gas chromatography (GC) with micro-electron capture detection (micro-ECD) method using headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) for the quantitative analysis of p,p'-DDE in rat whole blood and hair was developed. A 100 microm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) phase was used for the extraction. The obtained detection limits were 0.003 ng/mg and 0.004 ng/mg in whole blood and hair, respectively, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 (S/N = 3). Linearity was obtained in the ranges 0.003-2.0 ng/mg and 0.004-2.0 ng/mg in whole blood and hair, respectively, and the correlation coefficients of whole blood and hair were greater than 0.998. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of p,p'-DDE in rat whole blood and rat hair after an oral dose of p,p'-DDE.