Determination of formaldehyde in blood plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

An HPLC method was developed for the determination of formaldehyde in human blood plasma. The method was based on the determination of the fluorescent product of the chemical reaction between formaldehyde and ampicillin. A 0. 2-ml aliquot of blood plasma was reacted directly with ampicillin under aci dic and heating conditions. The reaction product was extracted from the mat rix with diethyl ether and analyzed by reversed-phase HPLC with fluorescenc e detection. Recoveries of spiked formaldehyde at the low ppm (mug/ml) leve l were between 93% and 102% with relative standard deviations less than 8%. The limits of detection and quantitation of formaldehyde in blood plasma s amples were 0.46 mug/ml and 0.87 mug/ml, respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.