ABSTRACT
A simple and rapid assay based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry has been first developed and validated for simultaneous determination of caprolactam (CA) and 6-aminocaproic acid (6-ANCA) in human urine using 8-aminocaprylic acid as internal standard. A 20µL aliquot of urine was injected directly into the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) system. The analytes were separated on a Phenomenex Luna HILIC column with gradient elution. Detection was performed on Triple Quadrupole LC-MS in positive ions multiple reaction monitoring mode using electrospray ionization. The calibration curves were linear (r(2)≥0.995) over the concentration range from 62.5 to 1250ng/mL for CA and 31.25 to 1000ng/mL for 6-ANCA. The detection limits of CA and 6-ANCA were 62.5 and 15.6ng/mL, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 8.7% and 9.9%, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day accuracy were between 5.3% and 3.5%, and between 6.1% and 6.6%, respectively. The method proved to be simple and time efficient, and was successfully applied to evaluate the kinetics of caprolactam in one unusual case of caprolactam poisoning.
Subject(s)
Aminocaproic Acid/urine , Caprolactam/urine , Chromatography, Liquid/methods , Tandem Mass Spectrometry/methods , Adult , Aminocaproic Acid/pharmacokinetics , Caprolactam/pharmacokinetics , Caprolactam/poisoning , Cimetidine/poisoning , Drug Interactions , Drug Stability , Female , Humans , Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions , Linear Models , Reproducibility of Results , Seizures , Sensitivity and SpecificitySubject(s)
Antidotes/therapeutic use , Caprolactam/poisoning , Methemoglobin/therapeutic use , Oxygen Consumption/drug effects , Animals , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Female , Humans , Liver/drug effects , Liver/metabolism , Poisoning/drug therapy , Poisoning/metabolism , Rats , Rats, Wistar , SolutionsABSTRACT
There is little published information on the human toxicology of epsilon-caprolactam, the monomer precursor of nylon 6. This paper reports an investigation of a group of eight workers who had been chronically exposed to atmospheric caprolactam levels of around 70 times the current ACGIH threshold limit value (TLV). No evidence of systemic toxicity was found, although all workers showed a greater or lesser degree of skin change in the form of peeling and/or fissuring.
