Biomedical Applications of Selected Ion Monitoring

Abstract

In 1961 Henneberg [1] employed selected ion monitoring (SIM) to study hydrocarbons eluting from a gas chromatographic column, and in 1966 the first biological application was reported by Sweeley, Elliott, Fries, and Ryhage [2]. Since these efforts and the early impetus given by Hammar, Holmstedt, and co-workers [3–6], SIM has found widespread application in biological, medicinal, and environmental research. Recent review articles have described ion monitoring work with magnetic sector instruments [7,8,8a,8b], quadrupole instruments [9], and time-of-flight instruments [19]. These articles provide comprehensive coverage of applications through 1972. This review emphasizes medicinal and biological applications through 1973 and attempts to evaluate current methods and recent developments.