A revised method for determination of dialkylphosphate levels in human urine by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry: application to human urine samples from Japanese children.

OBJECTIVES: Biological monitoring of organophosphorus insecticide (OP) metabolites, specifically dialkylphosphates (DAP) in urine, plays a key role in low-level exposure assessment of OP in individuals. The aims of this study are to develop a simple and sensitive method for determining four urinary DAPs using high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and to assess the concentration range of urinary DAP in Japanese children. METHODS: Deuterium-labeled DAPs were used as internal standards. Urinary dimethylphosphate (DMP) and diethylphosphate (DEP), which passed through the solid-phase extraction (SPE) column, and dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP) and diethylthiophosphate (DETP), which were extracted from a SPE column using 2.5 % NH3 water including 50 % acetonitrile, were prepared for separation analysis. The samples were then injected into LC-MS/MS. The optimized method was applied to spot urine samples from 3-year-old children (109 males and 116 females) living in Aichi Prefecture in Japan. RESULTS: Results from the validation study demonstrated good within- and between-run precisions (<10.7 %) with low detection limits (0.4 for DMP and DMTP, 0.2 for DEP and 0.1 µg/L for DETP). The geometric mean values and detection rates of the urinary DAPs in Japanese children were 14.4 µg/L and 100 % for DMP, 5.3 µg/L and 98 % for DMTP, 5.5 µg/L and 99 % for DEP, and 0.6 µg/L and 80 % for DETP, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The present high-throughput method is simple and reliable, and can thereby further contribute to development of an exposure assessment of OP. The present study is the first to reveal the DAP concentrations in young Japanese children.

[The present situation of daily life of tuberculosis patients treated in hospitals with beds for tuberculosis in Japan].

We sent a questionnaire to hospitals with beds for tuberculosis in Japan to know current situation of daily life of tuberculosis patients treated in hospitals. It was evident that some services of daily life facilities was delayed; e.g. the difficulty in using stores in a hospital, no dining rooms and no installation of a personal television set. The use of personal computers was not allowed in many hospitals. Tuberculosis patients were subjected to a marked restriction in the hospital in spite of their isolation from the family and the society. Patients were prohibited to go out from the ward except when they undergo certain examinations in the hospitals, to take a walk in the hospital compound and to go out or stay overnight outside the hospital. In the majority of hospitals, patients were allowed to take a walk or to stay overnight outside the hospital only after the negative conversion of tubercle bacilli in sputum. Judging from the above findings, it appears that many tuberculosis patients under hospital treatment are not spending a pleasant daily hospital life.