Rapid measurement of anticoagulant rodenticides in human blood and urine using online turbulent flow chromatography coupled with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are widely used to control rodents. A method based on online turbulent flow chromatography (TFC) combined with LC-MS/MS has been established for rapid quantitative determination of eight ARs in human blood and urine. This method, which does not require time-consuming pre-processing steps, renders it especially suited for use in emergency poisoning cases. Sample preparation, including extraction, centrifugation, and filtration, was followed by online clean-up using TFC. The total run-time was within 13.5 min, including online purification, chromatographic separation, and re-equilibration of the TFC system. The parameters for sample extraction, purification, separation, and detection in this study were optimized separately. The linear regression coefficients of matrix-matched calibration standard curves established for quantification were greater than 0.9976. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for the method were found to be 0.3–3.0 ng/mL in human blood and 0.06–0.6 ng/mL in urine. The recoveries of spiked target compounds at different concentrations in human blood and urine were 91.8–111.9% and 86.9–105.3%, respectively. Inter- and intra-day precision values were both less than 12.5%, and the matrix effects of human blood and urine samples for ARs were 75.3–108.6% and 102.7–130.0%, respectively. This method had successfully applied to the emergency detection of ARs in biological samples of poisoned patients.