Bilirubin measurements in neonates: uniform neonatal treatment can only be achieved by improved standardization.

Measurement of total bilirubin (TBil) concentration in serum is the gold standard approach for diagnosing neonatal unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. It is of utmost importance that the measured TBil concentration is sufficiently accurate to prevent under treatment, unnecessary escalation of care, or overtreatment. However, it is widely recognized that TBil measurements urgently require improvement in neonatal clinical chemistry.

Influence of isotopically labeled internal standards on quantification of serum/plasma 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

Objectives Our recent survey of 44 mass spectrometry laboratories across 17 countries identified variation in internal standard (IS) choice for the measurement of serum/plasma 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The choice of IS may contribute to inter-method variations. This study evaluated the effect of two common isotopically labeled IS on the quantification of 17OHP by LC-MS/MS.

Enhancing the accuracy of measurement of small molecule organic biomarkers.

Over two decades, the Organic Analysis Working Group (OAWG) of the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: Metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM) has organized a number of comparisons for clinically relevant small molecule organic biomarkers. The aim of the OAWG community is to be part of the coordinated international movement towards accuracy and comparability of clinical measurements that will, in turn, minimize the wastage of repeat testing and unnecessary therapy to create a sustainable healthcare industry. International and regional directives/requirements on metrological traceability of calibrators and control materials are in place.

The role of the CCQM OAWG in providing SI traceable calibrators for organic chemical measurements.

Metrological traceability for organic chemical measurements is a documented unbroken chain of calibrations with stated uncertainties that ideally link the measurement result for a sample to a primary calibrator in appropriate SI units (e.g., mass fraction).

The importance of reference materials in doping-control analysis.

Currently a large range of pure substance reference materials are available for calibration of doping-control methods. These materials enable traceability to the International System of Units (SI) for the results generated by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratories. Only a small number of prohibited substances have threshold limits for which quantification is highly important.

Development of a measurement system for certifying ethanol mass fraction in aqueous solutions.

In response to the sovereign requirement for national standards the National Measurement Institute, Australia (NMIA) has developed a measuring system using isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) to certify forensic aqueous ethanol solutions. NMIA participated in an international study, CCQM-K27, organized under the auspices of the International Committee for Weights and Measures to compare our measuring system with the techniques being used for certifying aqueous ethanol solutions in other metrology institutes. This comparison provided objective evidence that the measuring system developed was fit for the purpose of certifying aqueous ethanol solutions that ranged in concentration from 0.

Complete equation for the measurement of organic molecules using stable isotope labeled internal standards, exact matching, and mass spectrometry.

Highly accurate measurements of the amount of substance of organic molecules in a test material can be obtained using exactly matched calibration solutions and internal standards that are labeled with stable isotope atoms by measuring the amount ratio of analyte to internal standard using mass spectrometry. Estimating the uncertainty of quantitative measurements of organic molecules is a means of evaluating accuracy and of establishing traceability to the International System of Units (SI) and requires a measurement function that fully describes the measuring system. This paper presents the derivation of the equation (measurement function) that describes this complete measurement after the internal standard has equilibrated with the test material matrix.

Determination of quinolones and fluoroquinolones in fish tissue and seafood by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometric detection.

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with tandem mass-spectrometric detection was developed and validated for the simultaneous analysis of eight quinolones and fluoroquinolones (oxolinic acid, flumequine, piromidic acid, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, sarafloxacin and orbifloxacin) in trout tissue, prawns and abalone. The analytes were extracted from homogenised tissue using acetonitrile and the extracts subjected to an automated two-stage solid-phase extraction process involving polymeric reversed-phase and anion-exchange cartridges. Good recoveries were obtained for all analytes and the limit of quantification was 5 microg/kg (10 microg/kg for ciprofloxacin).