Biological monitoring of polychlorinated biphenyls in plasma a comparison of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and gas chromatography detection methods

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls PCBs are ubiquitous and persistent environmental compounds. Exposure of workers handling these materials can be assessed by biological monitoring. We have compared the concentration of PCBs in the plasma of exposed workers as measured by gas chromatography with electron capture detection (mean = 40.9 ng ml^-1, range = 6.7-120.3 ng ml^-1) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (mean = 47.1 ng ml^-1, range = 6.8-186.2 ng ml^-1). There was a good overall correlation between the two methods (n = 28, r = 0.92). We conclude that an ELISA is a useful screening tool for biological monitoring purposes where there is not immediate access to standard analytical equipment or where a very high throughput of samples is required.

Keywords::

• Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Elisa, Gas Chromatography