Purity assignment of 17β-estradiol by mass balance method

In general, quantitative chemical analysis in various areas including food, the environment, in vitro diagnostics, etc., requires traceability in order to increase the reliability of the measurements. Measurement traceability is a property of an unbroken chain of comparisons relating an instrument's measurements to SI units. Purity analysis is the first process for establishing traceability to SI units in chemical measurements. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a method of purity assignment for establishing the traceability of $17{\beta}$-estradiol measurements in an in vitro diagnostics field. The establishment of this method is very important as it can be applied to the development of CRM and to the analysis of the purity of other hormones. The method of assignment of the purity of $17{\beta}$-estradiol was developed using the mass balance method and was validated through participation in an International comparison. In the mass balance method, impurities are categorized into four classes as follows: total related structure impurities, water, residual organic solvents, and nonvolatiles/inorganics. In this study, total related structure impurities were characterized by a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and a high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) detector, water content was determined by a Karl-Fisher coulometer, and total residual solvents and nonvolatiles/inorganics were checked simultaneously by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The purity of the $17{\beta}$-estradiol was 985.6 mg/g and the expanded uncertainty was 2.1 mg/g at 95% confidence. The developed method can be applied to the development of certified reference materials, which play a critical role in traceability.