Multicomponent analysis of metabolites of low volatility in biological fluids by field ionization mass spectrometry

An improved mass spectrometric method for multicomponent analysis of metabolites in urine, well-suited for clinical biochemistry, is described. The method involves solvent elution of the metabolites from an adsorbent and the concentration of the eluate on a microadsorption column. This is administered by a direct inlet probe into the ionizing source of field ionization mass spectrometry (FIMS), which yield a molecular weight profile of the metabolites. The procedure provides rapidly (within one hour) reproducible profiles from a small volume of urine. The optimization of the sampling technique and the reproducibility are discussed.