Rapid screening of tetrodotoxin in urine and plasma of patients with puffer fish poisoning by HPLC with creatinine correction

Abstract

A rapid and simple detection method for tetrodotoxin (TTX) in urine and plasma of patients with puffer fish poisoning was developed using commercially pre-packed solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges (C18 and weak cation exchange columns) and subsequent analyses by HPLC with UV detection. The detection limit of the standard TTX, TTX-spiked urine and plasma samples were all 10 ng/ml and the average TTX recovery in urine and plasma samples after SPE were 90.3 ± 4.0 and 87.1 ± 2.9%, respectively. It was noticed that the creatinine-adjusted urinary TTX levels obtained within the first 24 h of presentation apparently correlated much better with the severity of poisoning than the urinary TTX concentration without adjusting for variations in concomitant creatinine excretion.

Keywords:

• chromatography
• HPLC
• clean-up
• SPME
• toxicology
• natural toxicants
• fish and fish products
• seafood

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (PolyU 5458/05M) and the TUYF Charitable Fund. The authors were grateful for constructive suggestions from the anonymous reviewers as well as continuous support from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Research Committee.

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declared that there was no conflict of interest that could inappropriately influence the work in this study.