4th Annual WML Academic Symposium

Statistics revealed by various health organizations have demonstrated that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the underlying causes for high mortality and morbidity rates. Chronic and acute exposure to air particulate matter, in particular the polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have led to several complications in the cardiovascular system. 9, 10- Phenanthrenequinone (9, 10-PTQ) is one of the PAHs that could cause CVD through a number of its toxicological effects. Successful analytical methods have been developed with gas and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS and LC-MS) to quantitate 9, 10-PTQ in the environment. A sensitive method could be developed and validated for qualitative and quantitative analysis of 9, 10-PTQ in various biological specimens by GC-MS and LC-MS. GC-MS might result in more efficient analysis of 9, 10-PTQ than LC-MS. Standard solutions of 9, 10-PTQ will be used to validate the method to assure reliability and applicability of the procedure. Serum and tissue samples will be spiked with 9, 10-PTQ as quality control standards which will be further purified and extracted by a suitable solid phase extraction method. The extraction method must be optimized and validated by criteria including bioanalytical validation, specifically the recovery percentage. A sensitive analytical method on GC-MS with an effective solid phase extraction procedure for sample preparation could be a potent approach to quantitate 9, 10-PTQ in human specimens.