Abstract
This is an excellent single-book reference on principles and techniques employed in analytical chemistry in the field of toxicology. An initial overview chapter provides information on various analysis methods for organic and inorganic compounds. The authors also describe how the results from multiple assays can provide increased power in confirming the identity of a toxicant. Terminology on method validation and sterochemistry are presented.
ie: HPLC, GC), with details on plasma protein precipitation, headspace-GC analysis, and various extraction methods (liquid-liquid, SPE, SPME, SFE, ASE).
Separate chapters deal with non-chromatographic methods such as spectrophotometric/ luminescence, and immunoassay and other enzyme-based assays. The presentation of spectrophotometric methods provides information on detection theory, instrument design and differences between UV, fluorescence and chemiluminescence techniques. The authors' discussion of the various immunoassay methods is quite comprehensive, with excellent explanatory graphics and example analytes for various assays. Development of novel immunoassays is generally regarded as outside the scope of general analysis laboratories.
A series of chapters deal with general theory of chromatographic separations, as well as specific treatments of thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). TLC is described as a useful qualitative tool, but with issues of lower specificity than higher-resolution methods such as GC, HPLC and CE. The discussion of GC is quite good, with explanations of injection techniques, numerous detector types and packed and capillary GC columns. A short discussion of derivatization for GC is included, as well as chiral separations of stereoisomers. The chapter on HPLC is quite comprehensive, with information on instrumentation, eluents, column and detector types. A good description of chiral separations and examples of derivatives is presented. Some examples of HPLC applications for various classes of drugs are given.
Separate chapters cover the topics of mass spectrometery (MS) and elemental analysis. As with previous topics, the authors give a historical overview of MS, instrument types, ionization modes and scanning techniques. Applications of both GC/MS and HPLC/MS methods to analytical toxicology are given, primarily for pharmaceutical agents. The authors provide a short, but comprehesive description of elemental analysis methods, such as atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), inductively-coupled plasma MS, X-ray fluorescence, and ion-selective electrodes.
A chapter on laboratory and statistical methods provides a good overview on how to numerically evaluate the accuracy, precision, linearity and limits of detection for analytical methods. The authors give a very useful description of the value of internal standards in chromatographic and MS assays.
The final three chapters provide a very good introduction to the “biology” of analytical toxicology, with overviews of pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism and clinical interpretation of analytical results.
In summary, this book is an excellent introductory resource to nearly all facets of analytical toxicology. The reviews of analytical methods are current and provide relevant examples of analytes. I would definitely recommend this book to clinical lab supervisors and students of toxicology and analytical chemistry.