APHL 2019 POSTER ABSTRACTS
Exposure to perfluorinated compounds has been found to negatively
impact the health of the consumer, which motivated the U.S. EPA to
add these compounds to the list of chemicals that are monitored
in drinking water. The EPA has outlined a method for extracting
and quantifying those analytes from drinking water in Method 537.
One of the biggest challenges when tackling this application is in
minimizing interferences and opportunities for contamination during
sample preparation and analysis. As PFCs are highly stable and non-
reactive, they have become commonly used materials for equipment
parts and laboratory supplies.
This work will demonstrate the use of a cartridge-based extraction
system to extract and quantify up to 24 PFC compounds in drinking
water to highlight the challenges associated with this application.
The work will emphasize a number of potential pitfalls that analysts
face — including blank interferences, system interferences and
carryover effects — along with tips for troubleshooting those
interferences and avoiding them during future analyses.
Presenter: Evan Walters, Biotage, Salem, NH
[email protected]
J. Stuff, F. Foster and J. Whitecavage, GERSTEL, Inc.
Introduction: The Opioid Epidemic continues to increase throughout
the United States. According to the CDC, 66% of all drug overdose
deaths in 2016 involved an opioid. This calculates to roughly 116
deaths every day from opioid related overdoses. After becoming
addicted to prescription opioids, users may unfortunately turn to
illicit alternatives such as heroin. To compound the issue further,
heroin has increasing been found to be mixed with other synthetic
opioids such as fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than
morphine. There is a critical need for forensic, heath care, and law
enforcement scientists to be able to quickly assess and monitor
which opioid is involved, to effectively respond to this epidemic.
Methods: Automating the entire hydrolysis, extraction, and
subsequent analysis by LC/MS/MS provides the critical high
throughput analysis for opioids in urine. Using the new GERSTEL
MPS robotic autosampler, syringe transfer of all liquids involved
in the enzymatic hydrolysis procedure, controlled incubation of
the samples for a defined period of time, as well as extractions of
the subsequent hydrolyzed urine samples using dispersive solid
phase extraction were performed. The resulting eluents from the
automated extractions were then introduced into the new Agilent
Ultivo LC/MS/MS instrument.
Preliminary Data: As a result of this study, we were able to show
that an automated enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent cleanup
method was shown to be successful using the GERSTEL MPS
robotic sampler for a variety of opioid compounds in urine. Using
this method, opioid analytes can be rapidly and reproducibly
isolated from hydrolyzed urine samples using an automated
cleanup procedure coupled to LC/MS/MS analysis using the
Agilent Ultivo Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, allowing their
respective limits of detection to be met. Linear calibration curves
resulting in R2 values 0.99 or greater were acheived upon the
complete automated hydrolysis of glucuronide conjugated analytes.
Coupling the solid phase extraction to the LC/MS/MS provides high
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LAB MATTERS Summer 2019
Novel Aspect: Complete automation of enzymatic hydrolysis
procedure coupled with the online extraction and LC/MS/MS
analyses of opioid drug compounds in urine.
Presenter: John Stuff, GERSEL, Inc., Linthicum, MD
[email protected]
New Legionnaires’ Disease Prevention Roles for
Environmental and Clinical Public Health Laboratories
P. Root 1 , P. Gounder 2 , K. Majeska 1 ; 1 IDEXX, 2 Los Angeles County
Public Health
As Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks make headlines, clinical and
environmental public health laboratories are fielding questions
about prevention and the role of microbiological testing in reducing
risk. This poster will educate laboratorians on 3 ways to combat this
deadly disease: raising awareness, providing environmental testing
guidance and encouraging sputum sample collection. It will also
incorporate a case study of a 2018 Water Safety Management Plan
(WSMP) education effort by a large public health laboratory.
Raising Awareness: The CMS memo stating healthcare facilities
must reduce their Legionnaires’ disease risk was published in 2017.
However, in a recent survey, 65% of the long-term care facility staff
expected to be involved in WSMPs (infection control professionals,
directors of engineering, etc.) rated their WSMP understanding as
“Low”. This poster will prepare public health labs to educate their
communities 1) about Legionnaires’ disease prevalence, 2) water
features where L. pneumophila can proliferate, 3) new research
about “cold” water and cooling towers.
Providing Guidance on Routine Monitoring: The abundance of
Legionnaires’ disease guidance makes it tough to stay current. The
poster will prepare attendees to talk with their stakeholders about
1) the value of routine monitoring to ensure a WSMP is effective
2) the revision of ASHRAE Standard 188’s Annex C guidance to
recommend accredited laboratory use and 3) choosing routine
testing methods.
Encouraging collection of culture samples from Legionnaires’
Disease Patients: Per the CDC, the best way to identify a
Legionnaires’ disease source and reduce the risk of more cases is
to match a patient’s sputum sample cultured in a clinical laboratory
with a water sample culture. With a clinical sample for comparison,
further analyses can be performed for a strain and/or sequence
match. This poster will cover communicating this message to
hospitals and promoting testing services the public health lab
may provide. It will also show how clinical culture data, like those
from the European Centers for Disease Control and CDC provide
insight into the causes of Legionnaires’ disease and for prioritizing
monitoring and mitigation efforts.
Case Study: In 2018 the Los Angeles County Public Health
Department hosted 128 staff from 90 skilled nursing care facilities
for a day-long WSMP Seminar. The poster will highlight “before and
after” learnings and key success factors for this initiative.
Presenter: Patsy Root, IDEXX, Westbrook, ME, [email protected]
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Completely Automated Hydrolysis, Extraction and Analysis
of Opioids in Urine Using a New Robotic Autosampler and
LC/MS/MS Platform
throughput and minimizes matrix interference from these biological
samples.