Systematic toxicological analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD)

In recent years, photodiode array detectors (DADs) have been much improved with respect to wavelength accuracy and resolution, sensitivity, linearity and software operation. UV spectra of drugs measured with up-to-date DADs from different manufacturers are in excellent agreement, have the same quality as measured by a conventional UV spectrometer and are highly reproducible. The calculation of similarity parameters by the DAD software includes the entire range of the spectra compared and allows recognition of very small differences. It was shown in a systematic study of more than 2500 toxicologically relevant substances that UV spectra have a very high specificity with respect to substance structure. Therefore, HPLC-DAD in combination with a comprehensive database of UV spectra and retention parameters is one of the most efficient techniques used in systematic toxicological analysis (STA). Furthermore, the method is advantageous for the identification of metabolites, since in many cases they have the same or very similar UV spectra compared with their respective parent substances and their retention times on reversed-phase columns are shifted in a manner typical of the particular biotransformation reaction. Beside these general aspects, practical applications of HPLC-DAD for STA are reviewed with respect to sample preparation and chromatographic conditions. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated for an example of a routine procedure using liquid-liquid extraction with CH 2 Cl 2 and protein precipitation for sample preparation, a system of three isocratic mobile phases with different acetonitrile/phosphate buffer ratios and RP8 columns for chromatography and a database of 2682 UV spectra and relative retention times for substance identification